Dwayne Peel has spoken of his delight and pride after his Scarlets created history to keep their hopes of making the United Rugby Championship play-offs.
Peel’s men claimed a famous 32-19 bonus point victory over the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg to move up to sixth in the table.
It was their first win on South African soil in the BKT URC era, with Wales full-back Blair Murray crossing twice, while No.8 Taine Plumtree and centre Johnny Williams also touched down.
They now have their destiny in their own hands with a trip to Durban to take on the Sharks coming up on Saturday to round off the regular season.
Head coach Peel said: “We are delighted with the win.
“We created a bit of history because we haven’t won out in South Africa since the Sharks, Lions, Bulls and Stormers have been in the competition.
“We needed to come here and get a victory to keep our hopes of qualifying alive. I’m proud to be a Scarlet tonight and proud to be part of this group.
“We prepped well for this game. Obviously the players put a massive shift in, but the staff as well. They planned meticulously. I am really pleased.
“The big thing for us this season is we wanted to compete and we are doing it right up until the last game.
“It’s obviously not done yet. We move on to next week now.
“It will be a massive challenge again down in Durban, but we’ll make sure we are ready to go and see how many points we can get.”
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Skipper Josh Macleod said: “I asked the boys to leave everything out on the pitch and I think we did that and came out on the right side of the result.
“I am just very glad that we came here and did the job.”
The flanker added: “I just want to say thank you very much to the fans. We could hear them throughout the whole game and it goes a long way.
“It’s a hell of an effort for them to travel all this way.
“I am just really grateful that we could get the result for them, especially. It’s Sharks next week and hopefully we just keep building.”
The Player of the Match award went to two-try Murray who said: “That was awesome. We came here knowing we needed to win to make the play-offs and it was a great effort from all the boys.
“It wasn’t just the 23 who played, but everyone who travelled and all the boys back home as well.
“They helped prepare us for this part of the season. It involved everyone, fans as well. It was awesome to see them here.
“The win over Leinster in the last round was massive for us and we just wanted to keep building on that momentum.
“We knew it was going to be tough. I am still trying to catch my breath now! It was a hard game, but the boys were unreal.”
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Murray went over for Scarlets’ first two scores and, although the hosts responded through scrum-half Nico Steyn’s touchdown, the visitors led 17-7 at half-time.
The victory in the end made it four wins in a row for Peel’s men.
A Sam Costelow drop goal soon after the restart extended the Scarlets lead before outstanding back row man Taine Plumtree made it 25-7 with a third try.
The home side hit back with two tries in the space of 11 minutes from right wing Richard Kriel to cut the gap to six points.
The fourth and all-important try came from Wales centre Johnny Williams to ensure a full-house of points and a shot at a quarter-final place next week against the Stormers.
It was a performance that saw the Scarlets put in 145 tackles to keep the Lions at bay.
There was also room for improvement in that they only converted four of their 13-line breaks into tries.
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