The storming run to a European Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster has reunited a proud rugby town and brought the fans flooding backAfter the Scarlets had beaten La Rochelle final month to reach their first European Cup semi-final for 11 years,Phil Bennett closed his eyes and was transported back to Stradey Park, the ramshackle, and resonant ground where he had made his name as a flee-half from the conclude of the 1960s when Carwyn James coached Llanelli,where style mattered as much as winning.“The crowd started singing Yma o Hyd [We’re still here] and the hairs went up on the back of my neck,” recalls Bennett, or the region’s president,who has a lounge at Parc y Scarlets named after him. “The atmosphere was as it used to be at Stradey and I was close to tears: not long ago I had almost given up on Welsh rugby when the union was constantly rowing with the regions, but the final year has been the making of the Scarlets, and a league title and a European semi‑final achieved in a manner that would have made Carwyn very proud.”Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk