United Rugby Championship: Scarlets target play-offs after Cardiff double
- Published
URC highlights: Cardiff 14 - 49 Scarlets
Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel has targeted the United Rugby Championship play-offs after hammering Cardiff 49-14 at the Arms Park.
It was a third successive bonus-point win for Scarlets and a double over their Welsh rivals which lifted Peel's side to ninth in the table.
The top eight qualify for the URC end of season play-offs.
"It has always been the goal getting into the play-offs and that is the challenge for us," said Peel.
"The structure of the season has been all over the place. Personally I wanted a run of games to see where we are at.
"Momentum is huge in this game and we want to climb the league."
Scarlets overcame an early 14-0 deficit by scored 49 unanswered points and seven tries.
"We were under massive pressure in the opening 20 minutes and it could have been easy for the dam to break and it didn't," said Peel.
"It was huge we weathered that storm and the second half was pretty good.
"The level of togetherness was good and you could see we were playing for each other."
Victory came at a cost with Wales duo Johnny McNicholl and Wyn Jones forced off the field with second-half knee injuries.
"It will be wait and see with those two," said Peel.
"Wyn was in pain and we get him scanned early in the week and hope it is not too bad."
Young admitted losing by 35 points at home was not a pleasant experience as Cardiff languish 14th out of 16 in the league.
"It is never nice and it was 42-0 in the second half and that is the worst thing, but you just have to take it on the chin," said Young.
"We have to man up, come back to work on Monday and go again."
Young had issued a stark warning to his squad after the 35-20 defeat in Llanelli, but insisted he was not unhappy with the character shown by his side at the Arms Park.
"It sounds a ridiculous thing to say, but I was more happy today then I was last week," added Young.
"Last week they (Scarlets) were first to everything and we lacked energy, desire and determination.
"There were a lot of doubters, questioning how many of the players wanted to play for the jersey.
"I don't think that could be chucked at us tonight, we gave as good as we could have got, but we were not good enough.
"The effort, energy and commitment was there, but everything went wrong in the second half.
"They were too physical for us up front, certainly in the second half and we could not match them.
"Our set-piece was creaking, we gave away penalties which gave them field position and momentum. Once a team resorts to keeping it tighter, we struggle.
"In the second half we had 30% possession and 25% territory so you are always going to struggle.
"Anything that did go wrong, went wrong with the two yellow cards and the amount of injuries as we finished off the last 15 minutes with a centre at flanker.
"The last two tries were us just throwing caution to the wind.
"The game had gone and the messages we were sending on we were trying to score four tries for the bonus point."
Cardiff also suffered significant injuries with captain Josh Turnbull ruled out in the warm-up after pulling his calf and is now unlikely to play in the Challenge Cup last 16 match next weekend.
Young faces a back-row injury crisis with Ellis Jenkins (dead leg) and Will Boyde (ribs) also taken off against Scarlets.
James Botham is also sidelined with a knee injury and likely to miss the European encounter, but British and Irish Lions flanker Josh Navidi should return.