Nigel Davies has fire a shot across the bow of the Wales star
Scarlets director of rugby Nigel Davies called out Taine Plumtree’s ill-discipline, making it clear the Wales back-rower’s actions are “not acceptable.”
Plumtree’s indiscipline has been a persistent concern and proved costly in the Scarlets’ defeat by Cardiff last Saturday. Seemingly in control at 24–7, the west Walians unravelled in the closing stages. A needless yellow card for killing the ball followed by a second for Blair Murray’s deliberate knock-on, allowed the match to slip away in a 28–24 loss.
“I don’t think it was unlucky. I think it was a poor call,” said Davies when asked about Plumtree’s decision at the ruck.
“We can’t accept that as being unlucky. We’ve spoken to Taine.
“Taine is a great player and a lot of his work-ons are not on his rugby but around his discipline. He knows that.
“It had a big effect on the game. Even looking before that episode there was a bit of a kerfuffle with (Alex) Mann where he rubbed his hands on his head.
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“That just isn’t acceptable. That sets the scene then for anything else that comes.
“Those are the type of things we’ve been talking about. It’s the pictures we put in front of the referee and also how individuals’ decisions like that can have huge impacts on the result particularly as we are a team who are fighting hard to get results and wins.
“It’s significant.”
Up until the final 10 minutes Plumtree had arguably been the best player on the field.
The 26-year-old carried extremely well, was excellent at the lineout and scored a try while his handling was a delight at times.
Plumtree’s class as a player is not in doubt but far too often his discipline has let the team down.
“For 65 minutes the game probably panned out as we would have hoped but we left ourselves down in that last 15 minutes,” said Davies.
“It is unfortunate we are talking about one individual in Taine but we’ve got to a point with the Scarlets where we’ve got to be accountable for those things.
“We saw the effect it can have. It turned the game on its head.
“Look, it wasn’t the only reason but it was a big factor.”
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