Scarlets contact skills and scrum coach Emyr Phillips sat down to speak to the media this week to reflect on last weekend’s narrow loss in Bayonne and look forward to round two of the EPCR Challenge Cup as Georgian side Black Lion return to Parc y Scarlets on Sunday.
Emyr, what were your reflections on the loss in Bayonne?
EP: “Pretty disappointed that we came away with just the one point. We realised it was a tough place to go, made a few changes, rotated the squad a bit and we gave ourselves a fighting chance to win with a couple of minutes to go. I suppose, to come away from France disappointed not to get the win is a realisation of where we are. We are on the up, we are a team that is looking to go to France and win games, not just stay in games, but we also realise that you don’t go very far in these European competitions if you don’t win your home games.”
Was your poor discipline a cause of frustration?
EP: “It is one of the things that stood out the most when we looked at our stats. Going away to France to a team that is going well in the Top 14, if you give away the number of penalties we did (18) you are always going to be up against it. Some are understandable, but the frustrating thing is, there were a lot we could have cut out, a lot of the cheap ones, a lot that piggybacked them and gave them good momentum into the game. You cut that penalty count down from 18 to 11 or 12 and it is a different day at the office. It is definitely something that stood out and definitely something we have spoken about as a coaching group and playing group as well.”
What about the challenge of Black Lion, a side who won at Parc y Scarlets last season?
EP: “They showed last year they are a good, well-coached team with that Georgia coaching group in there and have serious players and power to go with it. We realise that home wins are important in this competition and they have already picked up a home win so their confidence will be high. But we are in a good place, the squad is excited, the boys have trained well and are looking forward to a European game at home. It is a Sunday afternoon kick-off so hopefully we can get a good crowd down here and build on the positives we have had over the last few weeks.”
How much focus are you putting on Europe this season?
EP: “We saw a couple of years ago, if we go deep in this competition, it really does drive excitement within the club and within our supporters. Europe is something we love, it is certainly special to the club. The thing that we love as a club is giving our supporters home knockout rugby, we have seen before when we earn the right to have those fixtures the supporters come out and we have great days. Part of the reason the boys love this club is how connected we are to the supporters. We will be doing our best to make sure they have some good days out again and also give ourselves a fighting chance in two different competitions.”
Are there any injury updates?
EP: “As a squad we are in pretty good shape. A few boys had last weekend off are back in contention, unfortunately Sam Wainwright picked up an ankle issue early on (in Bayonne). We will investigate him further, but on the whole we are pretty good. It is nice to have proper selection meetings, a few headaches and to be able to play around with a few new combinations.”