Wayne Pivac paid tribute to Jonathan Davies – and others – after the returning cavalry helped the Scarlets up to second place in Conference B of the Guinness Pro14.
The Wales centre played his first match back after 10 months out injured and looked as if he had never been away as he scored two tries in the 54-14 thrashing of Southern Kings in Llanelli.
Paul Asquith and Ioan Nicholas joined Davies in making their first starts of the season as Pivac refreshed his squad following their defeat to Connacht the previous week.
“There were some pretty good performances from players who haven’t played a lot of rugby at this level yet this season,” said head coach Pivac.
“I was really pleased for those players, I thought the guys that came on made a really good impact tonight.”
Davies made a welcome return as he scored two of the Scarlets’ eight tries in a man-of-the-match timely comeback ahead of Wales’ autumn internationals.
The home side’s other scores came from Asquith, Nicholas, Dan Davis and replacements Simon Gardiner, Steff Evans and Kieran Hardy, with Rhys Patchell converting all of the first five tries and Angus O’Brien adding two late on.
For Kings, wing Bjorn Basson crossed twice with Masixole Banda kicking the two conversions.
“What we wanted to try and do after last week’s disappointment was to have an 80-minute performance,” added Pivac.
“We talked in the week around our start to the season and felt that we’d had a pretty good game against Leinster and three games where we stuttered our way through them. We put a line in the sand and make a statement tonight and I’m pleased we were able to do that with the changes we made.
“We want to keep improving as a group, there are a few changes to the squad from last year so we have to keep working on it and keep improving but I think this result was a step in the right direction. Our focus each week is about improving our performance and to play an attractive style of rugby.”
Ospreys halted Zebre’s run of home wins with a 22-8 victory at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.
The Italian side had won their last four home matches but Ospreys never looked back after taking an early lead to record their fourth win in five Conference A games this season.
Sam Davies opened the scoring with a second-minute penalty before converting Luke Morgan’s 13th-minute try to help Ospreys into a 10-0 lead.
The Wales international fly-half would end up with a personal haul of 17 points after adding a further three penalties and a drop goal to his tally.
Davies said: “We had a good game plan and if it wasn’t for a questionable Zebre try then we would have limited them to three points.
“We are very happy with what the coaches are giving us at the moment and we’re really looking forward to the game against the Scarlets next week.”
Zebre’s points came from a first-half Carlo Canna penalty and Jimmy Tuivaiti’s late try.
Dragons coach Bernard Jackman rested a number of players for his team’s 29-13 defeat away to Glasgow, but insisted it was the right call and claimed his side should have earned a bonus point.
“We put a massive effort in, I am really proud of the shift that the players put in,” said Jackman.
“In the last couple of minutes we were in touch of a losing bonus point and we just needed to get down there and force something. That’s big progress from Leinster, when we were well beaten.
“I am really proud of the effort and we have got way more depth this year. We made Glasgow work for it and that’s the challenge for us – to be hard to beat first before we start winning away, particularly somewhere like Glasgow, a formidable side with a great record.
“We made it difficult for them but it was a game would should have got a losing bonus from. That’s disappointing but there were definitely positives.
“We wanted to make progress from Leinster and we definitely did at a difficult place to come. We defended much better.”
On Friday night, the Cardiff Blues left it late but came back to beat the Cheetahs 24-21at the Arms Park.
Head coach John Mulvihill accused his team of seeking bonus points before they had secured the win.
“We had guys kicking the ball away, we had 50-50 passes, we weren’t patient in what we were trying to do,” said Mulvihill.
“We were trying to get a four-try bonus point in the first 15 minutes and we probably left four or five tries out there in the first 20 minutes. Opponents get confidence and momentum when they see you do that.”