Halfpenny miss gives Scarlets memorable victory

Against a below par French side, Scott Williams, Hadleigh Parkes, Rhys Patchell and Ken Owens produced stand-out performances as man of the match Williams scored the game's only try in the first half.

The rest of the home side's points came from Patchell's conversion and five penalties as Leigh Halfpenny nailed seven kicks of his own. The Wales fullback kept Toulon in the game and could have won it in the final minute but his long-range effort fell short.

It meant the home side came out on top by the narrowest of margins, the Parc y Scarlets crowd going wild at the final whistle as they celebrated one of the best results of Wayne Pivac's tenure.

Last Sunday's fixture between the two sides in France had seen the Scarlets try to move the giant Toulon pack around the field, and they played some more enterprising rugby in the first half.

Toulon, with their star-studded XV, were poor as they barely got started before the break, but credit had to go to Pivac's men for their performance.

With their Welsh front row of Rob Evans, Owens and Samson Lee reunited for the first time this season, the Scarlets more than patched up to the power of their opponents' pack. Steffan Evans went close to collecting a Patchell kick, before the home flyhalf gave his side a 3-0 lead.

It soon got even better. With Toulon still stuck in the changing rooms, Williams scythed his way to the line for a score which sent the home crowd wild and with Patchell converting and adding a penalty, the Welsh region were well on top.

Toulon hadn't even got started and Ma'a Nonu's failure to back himself to make the line after intercepting a Williams pass summed up their lethargy.

Toulon then got their first score of the day as Halfpenny landed a monster penalty, but it failed to deter the Scarlets, as a searing Patchell break put them on the front foot. DTH van der Merwe was up in support and he popped the ball up for Gareth Davies who inexplicably dropped the ball over the line.

A bust up following a scrum then saw Samu Manoa – who briefly replaced Duane Vermeulen – lucky to avoid a card for clashing with Davies and Patchell kicked the resulting penalty to make it 16-3.

In attack Toulon had offered next to nothing but their pack remained capable of winning them a penalty and two more efforts from Halfpenny narrowed their deficit to seven at the break.

Patchell and Halfpenny exchanged penalties at the start of the second period, before the latter was short with another effort from range. Toulon were much better after half time – they couldn't have been worse – but they were hindered when prop Florian Fresia was yellow carded.

A tight encounter ensued as both sides coughed up penalties on a regular basis.

Some of referee Matthew Carley's decisions were unpopular with the home crowd, and the game turned into a shootout between Wales duo Halfpenny and Patchell.

Two more penalties from Halfpenny – either side of one from Patchell – made it 22-18 and sent the game into the final 10 minutes with all to play for. A seventh kick from Halfpenny in the 72nd minute left one point between the teams and it was Toulon who were doing all the attacking.

Remarkably, the final few minutes saw the visitors have three chances to snatch victory. Halfpenny missed a penalty and Pierre Bernard's drop goal fell short before Halfpenny had one last shot at goal.

From just inside the opposition half, he stepped up but was off target to as the home side celebrated wildly.

The scorers:

For Scarlets:

Try: S Williams

Con: Patchell

Pens: Patchell 5

For Toulon:

Pens: Halfpenny 7

Yellow card: Florian Fresia (Toulon)

Teams: 

Scarlets: 15 Liam Williams, 14 DTH van der Merwe, 13 Hadleigh Parkes, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 John Barclay, 7 Will Boyde, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 Jake Ball, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Ken Owens (captain), 1 Rob Evans.

Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Lewis Rawlins, 20 Josh Macleod, 21 Jonathan Evans, 22 Aled Thomas, 23 Jonathan Davies.

Toulon: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 James O’Connor, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Pierre Bernard, 9 Jonathan Pelissie, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Juandre Kruger, 6 Charles Ollivon, 5 Romain Taofifenua, 4 Mamuka Gorgodze, 3 Levan Chilachava, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Xavier Chiocci.

Replacements: 16 Jean-Charles Orioli, 17 Florian Fresia, 18 Marcel Van Der Merwe, 19 Juan Fernandez Lobbe, 20 Jocelino Suta, 21 Maxime Mermoz, 22 Eric Escande, 23 Samu Manoa.

Referee: Matthew Carley (England)

Assistant referees: JP Doyle (England), Andrew Jackson (England)

TMO: David Grashoff (England)

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