Scarlets squeeze out Leinster
The kings of Europe led 16-7 thanks to Girvan Dempsey’s first-half try and 11 points from the commanding boot of Jonathan Sexton before they were pegged back by their Welsh hosts in the final quarter.
Both sides saw two players sin-binned, with Leinster forward pair Stan Wright and Sean O’Brien, as well as Scarlets debutants Richie Pugh and Rhys Thomas, feeling the wrath of Scottish official Neil Paterson.
But Cheika pulled no punches in his assessment of the slender yet crushing defeat and revealed his men rued a missed opportunity at Parc y Scarlets.
Cheika said: “It’s a game we should have definitely won. We got ourselves in a position to win but we didn’t take our opportunities.
“We lost the game because of ill discipline. We had a couple of opportunities to score tries but we didn’t. We did score one but it was disallowed by the referee.
“I was told there was a clear separation in the touchdown but I’m not sure about that. If it was a guy chasing a kick to put it down, I don’t think it would have been the same result.
“But we had opportunities to score in both corners and should have scored. Our forwards were lazy because we didn’t work hard enough to get into position to make that situation count and we showed a lack of composure.
“But that’s what you get when you take your foot off the pedal for 10 or 15 minutes, you’ll get beaten away from home.”
The Scarlets had endured a chaotic summer with at least a dozen players shipped out and forwards coach Paul Moriarty and chief executive Stuart Gallacher also out of the exit door.
But Cheika took a swipe at the pundits who wrote off the Welsh region.
He added: “It’s always a problem at the start of the season. People who tip have no idea and I wouldn’t be a betting man.
“The games on a Saturday are played by 15 guys against 15 guys. If they are up for it, they will beat us and if we’re up for it, we’ll beat them. It’s the same in the Magners League and the Heineken Cup.
“We understand how hard it is to play the Scarlets here because we’ve had some good battles and they’ve always been a threatening team.”
Leinster looked set for a morale-boosting victory but were reeling after Rhys Priestland’s 70th-minute penalty stole victory following Scarlets replacement prop Phil John’s close-range try.
But Cheika offered no excuses as he aims to pick his troops up for Saturday’s clash with another Welsh region, Newport Gwent Dragons, at the RDS.
Cheika said: “We know we’re still miles away from where we need to go. We won’t make excuses for the pre-season that we’ve had.
“We’ve got a good enough team to go away and fight for points in every match even without some of our players. That’s what we need to do.
“Games can turn like that and it happens a lot away from home. All of a sudden the penalty count turns against you and you start giving away ground. Then the next thing you know, you’re down men and you can’t do anything right.
“But, moreover, for 65 to 70% of the game, we actually played pretty well in our first outing. For the other 30%, we let our guard down and gave the opposition too many opportunities to score points.
“We paid the penalty and it’s something we have to deal with – we’ve only got ourselves to blame.
“We could and should have won the game but it doesn’t get you competition points.”
SCARLETS: D Evans, S Lamont, R Higgitt, J Davies, M Jones (capt), R Priestland, M Roberts; I Thomas, K Owens, R Thomas, L Reed, D Day, S Easterby, D Lyons, R Pugh.
Replacements: D Manu for Easterby (40-42) and R Thomas (61), L Williams for Higgitt (54), P John for Thomas (61).
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, F McFadden, S Berne, I Nacewa; J Sexton, C Keane; C Healy, J Fogarty, S Wright, L Cullen (capt), M O’Kelly, K McLaughlin, S Keogh, S Jennings.
Replacements: S O’Brien for McLaughlin (42), M Ross for Wright (42-50), S Keogh for Dempsey (70), N Morris for McFadden (75).
Referee: Neil Paterson (SRU).
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