Scarlets stun Toulon in thriller
It was a heroic performance from the home side at Parc y Scarlets, with Toulon joining them in the quarterfinals after taking home a losing bonus point.
A record Parc y Scarlets European crowd of 14,476 watched the home side become the first Welsh region for six years to reach the last eight of Europe's premier competition.
After their stunning win at Bath last Friday, Scarlets followed it up with their fourth win in a row – an amazing turnaround after they lost their opening two pool matches.
The first half was incident-packed with Scarlets starting strongly and scoring after two minutes when Rhys Patchell set up Tom Prydie. But Toulon responded with Duane Vermeulen driving over after a line-out.
Dan Jones and Anthony Belleau exchanged penalties but Chris Ashton then intercepted a Patchell pass to sprint 70 metres and score. Aaron Schingler then charged down a Belleau kick and set up Hadleigh Parkes.
Penalties were again exchanged by Jones and Belleau before Dan Jones scored a converted try from a line-out. There was still time for Belleau to kick three more points and miss a further penalty before half-time, when Scarlets led 27-21.
The second half was more cagey, with a Patchell penalty for Scarlets and two by Francois Trinh-Duc, but Toulon could not quite reel Scarlets back in, with a long-range Trinh-Duc penalty sailing wide at the death.
The scorers:
For Scarlets:
Tries: Prydie, D Jones 2
Cons: D Jones 3
Pens: D Jones 3
For Toulon:
Tries: Vermeulen, Ashton
Con: Belleau
Pens: Belleau 3, Trinh-Duc 2
Teams:
Scarlets: 15 Rhys Patchell, 14 Tom Prydie, 13 Hadleigh Parkes, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Paul Asquith, 10 Dan Jones, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 John Barclay, 7 James Davies, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 David Bulbring, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Ken Owens, 1 Rob Evans.
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Lewis Rawlins, 20 Will Boyde, 21 Aled Davies, 22 Steff Hughes, 23 Leigh Halfpenny.
Toulon: 15 Hugo Bonneval, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Semi Radradra, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Chris Ashton, 10 Anthony Belleau, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Raphael Lakafia, 6 Facundo Isa, 5 Romain Taofifenua, 4 Juandre Kruger, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Florian Fresia.
Replacements: 16 Anthony Etrillard, 17 Xavier Chiocci, 18 Emerick Setiano, 19 Juan Fernandez Lobbe, 20 Francois Trinh-Duc, 21 Jean Monribot, 22 Eric Escande, 23 Samu Manoa.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees: Tom Foley (England), Paul Dix (England)
TMO: David Grashoff (England)
Source: @ChampionsCup
