Scarlets grit it out to set up clash with Clermont

SCARLETS qualified for the quarter-finals but they certainly made hard work of dispatching Brive in the dreadful conditions.

Brive are nine points adrift at the bottom of the Top 14, with their main priority to attempt to avoid relegation and hence they fielded less than half of their firstchoice line-up to make Scarlets huge favourites.

When they lost two players to the sin-bin in the first quarter, any chance of a surprise victory looked out of the question but disjointed Scarlets were a far cry from the side which impressed in sending the formidable Sharks packing last week.

Despite whole-hearted efforts from lock partnership, Sam Lousi and Vaea Fifita, Scarlets seemed to find every way possible not to score and it was not until two minutes from time that they secured victory to earn a home tie against Clermont next week.

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said: “We weren’t accurate enough when we got in behind them and probably tried to play too much but Brive defended well and were very physical.

“The weather lended itself to a tight game, which didn’t suit us, but we showed grit at the end to get the job done.

“I thought some of boys showed a bit of nerves as a lot of the youngsters haven’t played much knock-out rugby but I’m more than happy with the result.”

A Sam Costelow penalty gave Scarlets an early lead before Brive’s Nic Krone, was sin-binned for obstructing Ryan Conbeer. In the fullback’s absence, Costelow added another before Brive lost a second player to the bin when their skipper, Said Hireche, was yellow-carded for impeding Steff Evans.

However Scarlets couldn’t make it count by scoring a try but Costelow did succeed with a third penalty before departing with a dead leg.

The three penalties were the only scores of an error-ridden first half and remarkably it was Brive who scored the opening try when Rhys Patchell lost possession to allow a break-out for Stuart Olding to win the race to touchdown.

The hosts’ response was swift with Fifita running 45 metres to outpace the defence for a superb solo try but Brive had the better of the final quarter until Shingler’s late effort from close range calmed Scarlets’ nerves.