Costelow grabs it for Scarlets
SAM Costelow held his nerve with a touchline conversion to win a thrilling game and send Scarlets through to a home semi-final.
It was rough justice on impressive Clermont, who overcame the loss of Irae Simone to a 24th minute red card to be the better side for the majority of the game.
Despite playing with 14, their powerful forwards led by Fritz Lee were the dominant force as they turned a 15-3 deficit into a 30-22 advantage before Scarlets managed to take back control and grab the glory in the closing minutes.
Constant French pressure forced the concession of two yellow cards for Vaea Fifita and Gareth Davies but their needless errors gifted Scarlets two tries to allow the Welsh region a first victory over them in seven attempts.
Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said: “It’s a massive win as we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. On 65 minutes, I thought we were really up against it as we were struggling to cope with their power game.
“Sam’s kick was fantastic as we showed terrific fight and endeavour to get the job done but if I were in Clermont’s shoes, I would be very disappointed.”
Anthony Belleau and Leigh Halfpenny exchanged early penalties before Scarlets scored the best try of the night.
On halfway, they moved the ball sweetly along the line to give Steff Evans an opportunity. The wing raced away before kicking ahead for Halfpenny to win the race for the touchdown.
Scarlets soon scored another. Baptiste Jauneau threw out a poor pass for both Costelow and Steff Evans to hack on before Costelow collected a favourable bounce to score.
Clermont needed a response and it came with Damian Penaud chipped over Halfpenny’s head and when the ball bounced loose, Simone picked up to score.
Two minutes later, Simone became the villain when he was dismissed with his head-high challenge forcing the luckless Halfpenny off to fail an HIA.
Costelow missed with the resulting penalty and his side suffered another blow when Fifita was sinbinned for dragging down a maul.
Clermont capitalised to take the lead for the first time. Their powerful forwards built up a head of steam before a well-judged cross-field kick from Belleau saw Alivereti Raka gather with Belleau converting before adding a penalty.
Scarlets responded when centre Johnny Williams picked off a telegraphed pass from Alex Newsome to run in a try with Costelow’s conversion leaving them with a 22-18 advantage at the interval.
Within four minutes of the restart Davies was sinbinned for a trip on George Moala and Clermont were immediately back in front when Raki bounced off two defenders to score his second.
Scarlets suffered a big blow when No.8 Sione Kalamafoni was helped off with a leg injury just past the hour mark before Clermont scored their fourth when Giorgi Beria drove over from close-range.
Despite some heroic tackling from Josh Macleod and Sam Lousi, Scarlets looked a spent force but Costelow kicked a penalty before Ryan Conbeer benefited from an excellent off-load from Carwyn Tuipulotu to squeeze over for Costelow to deliver the final blow.