Perpignan 37 – 5 Scarlets
The Scarlets hopes of a quarter-final spot were ended by a clinical Perpignan side in the South of France.
Perpignan finish top of the pool and clinch a home quarter final thanks to their 37 v 5 victory.
In the glorious French sunshine Jerome Porical gave his side the perfect start, collecting his own kick through to touch down after three minutes.
Perpignan’s power up front and creativity out wide caused the Scarlets problems and Henry Tuilagi benefed from a sweeping attack to touch down for his side’s second try.
Tuilagi then played provider, linking up with scrum-half Florian Cazenave to create space out wide for Farid Sid who ran in to score.
Porical added the conversion and on the stroke of half-time Nicolas Laharrague added a penalty for a 22-0 score at the break.
The Scarlets need to respond immediately after the break and that is exactly what they did.
Following the style of their hosts, the Welsh side hit hard through the midfield and then use the slight of hand out wide to create space and Jonathan Davies crashed over after 45 minutes to give his side hope.
Just as the visitors started to play with belief the killer blow came from Cazenave. The snipping scrum-half who was at the heart of all the first half action touched down for the bonus-point score.
From a simple catch and drive 10 metres out the home pack rumbled their way forward and always looked in control, South African Gerrie Britz touching down for Perpignan’s fifth try.
