Dan’s the star man as Scarlets sizzle
SEVENTEEN points from Dan Jones was just enough for Scarlets to win a thrilling Pool 5 decider and put the Welsh region through to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2007.
The young fly-half justified his surprise selection at No.10, with Rhys Patchell at 15 ahead of Leigh Halfpenny, with an assured performance before an atmospheric sell out crowd at Parc-yScarlets.
Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac said: “I had a chat with Leigh on Thursday and he felt he may need a full week back after injury.
“We felt that the team needed continuity after last week’s excellent win at Bath so we made a mature decision and it proved to be the correct one.
“We set some goals from the start of the season, one of which was to make an impact in Europe, so to qualify after losing our first two games by winning our last four is a terrific achievement.”
There was little between the teams with Scarlets shading the first half before Toulon rallied to dominate and they will reflect that they did not turn their possession and territory into sufficient points to comfortably win a try-less second half.
Toulon will take some solace that their bonus point was enough for them to progress to the knock-out stages but they will be on the road as may the Scarlets, who have to wait on the remaining fixtures before their position is finalised.
In the first half the enterprise of Jones, Rhys Patchell and Hadleigh Parkes gave Scarlets the edge but the introduction of experienced international, Francois Trinh-Duc rewarded a great effort from the visitors’ pack, who clearly won the breakdown contest in the second half.
First on the scoreboard were Scarlets when a flowing move ended with Patchell throwing a long pass to Tom Prydie, who strolled over. However Scarlets botched the restart and, from the resulting line-out, Duane Vermeulen collected before crashing through a huge hole in the home defence to score.
Jones and Anthony Belleau exchanged penalties before another two tries came in quick succession. Chris Ashton intercepted Patchell’s pass to run 65 metres to briefly give his side the lead before Aaron Shingler charged down Belleau’s ill-judged kick for Parkes to pick up and score.
Jones converted before he and Belleau swopped penalties as the frenetic action continued with a fifth try when Jones crossed after an excellent kick and chase from Parkes secured an attacking lineout in the visitors 22.
Belleau missed a long distance penalty but succeeded with another to leave his side trailing 27-21 at the end of a breathtaking first half.
At the interval, Toulon would have known that Bath had already scored four tries so the French needed at least a point to stay in the competition but they fell further behind when Patchell kicked a penalty from half-way.
Trinh-Duc replaced Belleau and kept Toulon in contention with two penalties as the French became increasingly dominant – but remarkable defence saw Scarlets hold on for a famous victory as TrinhDuc’s last minute drop-goal attempt sailed wide.