Sam Costelow has been on the end of plenty of stick while playing for Wales, but the Scarlets are missing him dearly right now
Coming out of the November internationals, the hope for the Scarlets was that the second block of fixtures would be significantly better than the first.
That wouldn’t be hard, it must be added. Dwayne Peel’s side started the season with four straight defeats; it could have easily been five had bad weather not stopped them from travelling to Galway.
However, the start of the second block of fixtures offered some promise. On the day Wales were beaten 73-0 by South Africa, the Scarlets produced an impressive performance to get their first win of the season – beating Glasgow 23-0 at Parc y Scarlets.
Heading into Europe, they then pushed Bristol all the way in Llanelli, before unsurprisingly going down away to defending champions Bordeaux in France.
But there was something to work with, it seemed.
While the festive derbies started with a smash-and-grab win over Cardiff built on defensive efforts, the wind has been knocked out of the west Walians thanks to back-to-back defeats to the Ospreys and Dragons.
Now, they find themselves sitting bottom of the table.
There are a myriad of reasons behind the Scarlets being 16th in the URC. But the fact Sam Costelow is currently sidelined is certainly one of them.
The fly-half perhaps hasn’t enjoyed the happiest few years since being installed as Dan Biggar’s successor after the 2023 World Cup.
Warren Gatland kept faith in him being Wales’ next fly-half for 40 minutes, then dropped him from the team. Then brought him back again.
From there, Costelow has been struggling for confidence at Test level. The debate on whether he has what it takes to be a Test fly-half is one for another day.
It’s a debate that tends to draw a fair bit of vitriol online, perhaps more so than other positions. It’s an unfair one, but the 24-year-old certainly wasn’t helped by the Wales set-up at different times in the past two years.
All the while though, he’s remained a key cog in a Scarlets team that has shown glimpses here and there, but has ultimately struggled.
Ahead of that 2023 World Cup, Costelow was key to the Scarlets reaching the Challenge Cup semi-final.
It was the same last year, with the Scarlets looking a better side on their way to the URC play-offs when Costelow was pulling the strings.
Even this season, the win over Glasgow and much of the performance against Bristol were underpinned by Costelow’s presence.
What a blow, then, that Costelow has been missing since the week of the Cardiff match with an ankle injury. He’s unlikely to be back for at least a couple more weeks.
Instead, Joe Hawkins will continue in the 10 jersey in his absence. A fine player, but a 12 at Test level.
Hawkins will probably start the Six Nations as Wales’ first-choice inside centre, having been playing most of his rugby between international campaigns at fly-half.
It was a similar story for Costelow’s previous rival for the Scarlets 10 jersey, Ioan Lloyd. Another who tended to play elsewhere in the backline, but trusted with the 10 jersey in Llanelli.
The Scarlets perhaps aren’t the free-flowing attacking side you’d hope them to be, but Costelow not only brings shape and organisation when he plays, but the improvisational skills to break out of it.
Without them, they can look a little one-paced and prosaic. Against the Dragons on New Year’s Day, they rarely threatened the home side with ball in hand.
Put simply, the Scarlets look a slightly different outfit when they have their one out-and-out fly-half in the position.
“For the last couple of seasons, we talked about transitioning a team and he’s really grown,” said Scarlets head coach Peel. “So when I first came here, we had Dan Jones, we had Rhys Patchell and then Sam as a young, young guy coming through.
“What he’s been able to do over the last couple of seasons is grow himself into a leader here. If you look back at the games he’s played this season, he’s led really well.
“Having him in the group is big for us and I think that he leads really well as a 10. The balance between him and Joe, I think having both of them would have been good, but it is what it is.
“These things happen in sport and we’re missing him at the minute in the group. It’s definitely a loss for us.”
It all makes for an interesting dichotomy. Few players have received as much stick as Costelow around the Test stage in the past couple of years, yet few players are perhaps as important to their club’s fortunes either.
For now, though, the Scarlets will have to do without him for a little while longer.