Halfpenny and Patchell carry battling Scarlets to semi-finals
Eighty thousand fans are expected to pack Cardiff ’s Principality Stadium for tonight’s bout between Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker. They will have to go some to match the noise generated at the final whistle of this heavyweight Champions Cup contest in Llanelli, as Scarlets secured a place in the semifinals of Europe’s elite competition for the first time in 11 years.
Second-half tries from Rhys Patchell and Scott Williams – plus five penalties from the ever-trusty boot of Leigh Halfpenny – saw them through against a La Rochelle team who lost star player Levani Botia early on and never quite recovered.
Scarlets will now travel to play either Leinster at the Aviva Stadium or holders Saracens at the Ricoh Arena and captain Ken Owens – who was named man of the match – described the victory as a “job half done”. “We have got another big game in three weeks,” said the hooker. We will get better and improve. The atmosphere was fantastic. It has been a barren 11 years.”
As Owens implied, it was not perfect, free-flowing rugby of the type that saw off Bath in the group stages. But it was gutsy. A controversial try after nine minutes had handed La Rochelle the initiative; a chip over the top landed awkwardly for Halfpenny and lock Romain Sazy managed to get a hand on it, with TMO David Grashoff ruling there had been a clear grounding. Cue boos from the stands.
La Rochelle dominated possession and territory, but their indiscipline proved fatal, conceding seven penalties in the first half alone. Halfpenny kicked four from four to give Scarlets a 12-10 lead at halftime. Scarlets extended their advantage further at the start of the second half – Halfpenny knocking over another penalty after Dany Priso was late releasing Gareth Davies – but they had to cope with a number of injuries themselves.
James Davies, who began the game at flanker, had to move to the right wing after Paul Asquith hobbled off. And when Steff Evans took a knock to the head early in the second half, Dan Jones came on, with Patchell moving to full-back and Halfpenny to the wing.
The reshuffle proved instrumental to Scarlets’ second-half try, with Jones throwing the miss-pass to Patchell that led to the latter’s score after the impressive Hadleigh Parkes had crashed up the middle.
Scarlets had just withstood a period of huge La Rochelle pressure, with John Barclay securing the crucial turnover on his own line.
The hosts’ line-out maul defence was exemplary. Scarlets scored a second try late on through centre Williams after excellent work from Aaron Shingler and Davies out wide, with Pierre Boudehent’s reply for La Rochelle a mere consolation.
The Parc y Scarlets crowd – increased to nearly 16,000 through temporary seating – roared their approval at the final whistle.
“It has taken 11 years to get back to the same stage,” Owens said. “It was the biggest game of my club career. I am just so proud of the boys.” The Falcons did not so much as soar as claw their way to a win that should have been sealed by halftime. Staccato, slipshod and penalty prone, they rarely got out of second gear.
Dean Richards’s side have turned winning losable matches into an art form, and against the 13th-best side in France, Newcastle’s mediocre display was enough to take them into a Challenge Cup semi-final against the winners of today’s tie between Connacht and Gloucester.
“We didn’t play well,” agreed Richards. “Last week there was lots of endeavour and accuracy; this week there was just endeavour. If we play like that again then we won’t get anywhere near the playoffs or the Challenge Cup final.”
The first try, though, was a thing of beauty: Sam Lockwood charged on to Toby Flood’s hard, flat pass, carving through the Brive midfield before drawing the full-back and throwing a lovely inside pass for Scott Wilson to romp over.
Nicolas Bezy replied with a penalty, but Zach Kibirige went over for the hosts after a run from blindside Ryan Burrows, before Brive No 8 Etienne Herjean made it 12-10 at half-time.
The crucial try came on the hour, Flood dummying through Brive’s defence and unleashing wing Alex Tait with a beautiful long pass.
Flood then broke down the blindside before throwing another long pass to Tait for the easiest of tries, before Joel Hodgson added an injury-time penalty.