Scarlets still in the mix in Europe after holding Racing to draw

With six points from 10 in the opening two games of the Heineken Cup, the Scarlets have kept their opportunities in this season’s European Cup alive with a solid performance against a big budget Racing Metro side at Parc y Scarlets.

The Scarlets were left disappointed by their 26-26 draw at home after keeping control of the game up until the final minutes when a couple of errors allowed the French super side to claw back into the contest.

From the outset, Racing came out firing and led 10-0 in the early stages only to be pegged back by the West Wales side, who scored 20 points without reply to hold a commanding lead at the break.

With a resounding 23-10 lead in the second half; the Scarlets looked impressive both with the ball and in defence holding Racing in the arm wrestle for the majority of the game and showing some great intent and flair with the ball.

Fly-halves Rhys Priestland and Jonny Sexton kicked 16 points apiece while both teams crossed the whitewash twice with Scarlets try scorers the two Williams’, Scott and Rhodri again showing their ability and agility in attack.

A superb rally from their Top 14 opponents and typically strong French resistance to never give in until the final whistle saw the visitors come back to squeeze a tie and two points.

There was a dramatic finish to the well-attended Parc y Scarlets game as Racing thought they had won it at the death when Wenceslas Lauret had appeared to score his second try of the game, only for his 81st-minute effort to be ruled out by the TMO for a knock-on.

With a vocal crowd getting behind the Scarlets from start to finish and heart and soul rugby country in West Wales showing it’s ambition to take on the big sides in Europe, Simon Easterby said he was proud of the way his players stepped up and put in another solid performance.

Easterby said: “That was quite a game and in the end we played into their hands a little bit and up until the 79 minute we’d been disappointed with the draw from all the effort and ambition we’d shown as a team. We gave them a few opportunities and as you’d expect from a team with their quality and depth they took them well.

“There we plenty of positive in our game; our intent to play was evident and our defence was good; it’s just disappointing that at 23-10 we could not close the game out.

“We must credit the players and our supporters at the game for putting their all into a very big Heineken Cup fixture against formidable opposition with real depth to their squad and highly experienced individuals.”

Overall, Easterby said the Scarlets would be quite satisfied about what they have achieved in their opening two games.

“I don’t think many people on the outside would have expected us to be in the position we are now; we are still in the mix. We’ll look back on this game and think that it was a chance gone missing but to be on six points out of a maximum 10 at this stage isn’t a bad start.

“We’ve got a big challenge in Clermont back to back in December; we’ll just have to hope that our front line players come back in good health from the autumn internationals as there are only back with us for a very short time before we go straight into Heineken Cup.

“We’ve shown that we have grown since last season and we are a better side in this competition this season. We now need to go and build on this and bring it to our domestic competition over coming weeks.

Easterby added: “It’s been a good weekend for Welsh regional rugby and as regions we can take some pride from the way we have competed against some of the best in Europe with considerably greater resources and the luxury of high quality squad numbers to their benefit.

“It shows the motivation this level of competition brings us as Welsh regions and how we thrive from being part of it.”