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Professional Scarlets humiliate amateur Cheetahs

The six tries to one (43-8) win flatters a Cheetahs team that were childishly naive in their performance.

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It was truly a team of professionals against a bunch of amateurs.

The Scarlets were up 24-3 at halftime and 43-3 on the hour.

They cleared their bench and went into cruise mode – the Cheetahs managing a solitary try in a period when their host were to just avoid injuries ahead of the semifinals in a fortnight.

If Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac would have had any worries about his side suffering end-of-term fatigue, he needed have.

In his wildest dreams he couldn’t have expected a knockout tie to be as comfortable as this.

The Cheetahs have been a dangerous beast in their first season in the Pro14, but they were toothless in Llanelli.

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Defensively, they were found wanting all too often by a rampant home side and when they did have any scraps of possession, their handling let them down.

But that is taking nothing away from the Scarlets.

The Scarlets scored three tries in each half and could have had at least a handful more.

Man of the match Steff Evans dazzled out wide, while Scott Williams, in his final home match before his move to the Ospreys, produced some trademark midfield surges.

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The Cheetahs have been impressive in their opening season in the competition, but their qualification was based on a powerful record at their Bloemfontein stronghold, with their only away success in the northern hemisphere coming against Zebre and the Dragons.

In contrast, the Scarlets’ home form has been formidable and they went into the play-offs protecting a 20-game unbeaten streak stretching back to the opening weekend of last season.

 

The scorers:

For the Scarlets:

Tries:S Evans 2, Halfpenny, Prydie, Davies, J Evans

Cons: Halfpenny 2, Patchell 3

Pen: Halfpenny

For the Cheetahs

Try: Blommetjies

Pen: Goosen

Yellow card: Rhys Patchell (Scarlets, 80 – foul play, late tackle)

Teams:

Scarlets: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Tom Prydie, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Steffan Evans, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 John Barclay, 7 James Davies, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 5 Steven Cummins, 4 Lewis Rawlins, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Ken Owens (captain), 1 Rob Evans.

Replacements: 16 Elias Ryan, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Aaron Shingler, 20 Will Boyde, 21 Jonathan Evans, 22 Daniel Jones, 23 Steffan Hughes.

Cheetahs: 15 Clayton Bommetjies, 14 William Small-Smith, 13 Francois Venter (captain), 12 Niel Marais, 11 Sibahle Maxwane, 10 Johan Goosen, 9 Tian Meyer, 8 Uzair Cassiem, 7 Teboho Mohoje, 6 Paul Schoeman, 5 Renier Bernardo, 4 Carl Wegner, 3 Johan Coetzee, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 1 Retshegofaditswe Nche.

Replacements: 16 Jacques du Toit, 17 Charles Marais, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Daniel Hugo, 20 Henco Venter, 21 Mthokozisi Mkhabela, 22 Clinton Swart, 23 Lloyd Greeff.

Referee: George Clancy 

Assistant Referees: Frank Murphy, Mike Adamson

TMO: Olly Hodges

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