Director of rugby Nigel Davies said he was delighted with his side’s start to their EPCR Challenge Cup quest after the Scarlets registered an impressive 47-14 win over Newcastle Red Bulls in the opening round of the competition at Parc y Scarlets.
The home side produced some sparkling rugby to run in seven tries against the Gallagher PREM side, with Davies praising the intent, with and without the ball.
“We know what we can do with the ball, we know we have the ability to score tries, but I was really pleased with our work off the ball tonight. Defensively it was one of our best performances so far,” he said.
“It takes a long time to build a successful side and that was a step forward.
“It was as good as we could have expected, but it’s just the start in this competition.
“We know we still have a lot of work to do, but that performance will stand us in good stead going to South Africa.”
Davies added: “We started the season with six or seven quality forwards not available to us, they are starting to come back and it’s about adding real depth and competition to the squad.
“You saw that with Taine (Plumtree), his first action was to take that kick-off (high above his head), that is the type of quality you want.”
Davies also hailed the performance of skipper Josh Macleod, who produced a string of key turnovers to dominate the breakdown battle.
“Josh had a fantastic game,” he added. “Those turnovers were big moments in the game. Within all the planning and structure you still need to come out on the right side of those big moments in games and we did tonight.”