Pivac points finger at the officials after narrow loss

WAYNE Pivac criticised the performance of the officials as Benetton put a dent in the Scarlets’ PRO14 play-off hopes.

With just six rounds remaining the Scarlets are five points off the top three and struggling to qualify for next season’s Champions Cup. They were outmuscled by a stronger Benetton pack but Pivac believes the officials got some key decisions wrong.

“We made some errors and we’ve got to look at those first and foremost but there were also some errors by the officials,” he said. “The penalty count in the second half was five nil against us at one stage. It makes it very difficult to get possession.

“This is another game where we were close but not close enough. We must dust ourselves off, it will go down to the wire.”

Tries from Toa Halafihi, Luca Sperandio and Federico Ruzza plus ten points from the boot of Ian McKinley got the job done for Benetton.

The Scarlets scored three tries of their own with Johnny McNicholl crossing twice along with Kieran Hardy, while Dan Jones and Rhys Patchell kicked four points.

Scarlets opened the scoring when fly-half Jones got on the outside of the defence before releasing Ioan Nicholas who put Hardy over.

But the Italian side then lay siege to the Scarlets line with Federico Ruzza and Irne Herbst brought down just short. The ball was recycled for powerful No.8 Halafihi to smash over the try-line.

Scarlets hit straight back when Steff Evans opened up the defence to put McNicholl over for a half-time lead of 12-7.

Benetton took the initiative in the early stages of the second-half with Sperandio crossing after a terrific surge by Iliesa Ratuva.

Scarlets, last season’s beaten finalists, then scored a real contender for the try of the season. With the referee playing advantage they launched an attack in their own 22. Samoan star Kieron Fonotia ghosted past four defenders before offloading to McNicholl who scored his second try.

But the Italian pack began to put the squeeze on and Ruzza scored in the right corner from a McKinley cross kick before Scarlets hooker Marc Jones was sent to the bin for a high tackle.