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Scarlets shock 14-man Clermont in Challenge Cup boilover

By PA
Press Association

Scarlets scored a late converted try to claim a thrilling 32-30 victory over 14-man Clermont to reach the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup for the first time.

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Sam Costelow fired over a touchline conversion following Ryan Conbeer’s try with five minutes to go as the hosts snatched a memorable win at Parc-y-Scarlets.

It was rough justice on three-time champions Clermont who overcame the 24th-minute sending-off of centre Irae Simone to turn a 15-3 deficit into a 30-22 advantage before Scarlets’ late rally.

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Johnny Williams, Leigh Halfpenny and Costelow scored Scarlets’ other tries with Costelow kicking a penalty and two conversions – including the match-winner. Halfpenny also added a penalty and a conversion.

Alivereti Raka (two), Giorgi Beria and Simone replied for Clermont with Anthony Belleau slotting over two penalties and a conversion, and Jules Plisson adding a conversion.

Belleau and Halfpenny exchanged early penalties before Scarlets thrilled the home crowd by scoring a wonderful try.

On halfway, the hosts nicked an opposition line-out before swift handling gave Steff Evans the opportunity to show his pace down the right flank. The wing burst away before kicking ahead for Halfpenny to win the race for the touchdown.

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Scarlets soon had another try. An under-pressure Baptiste Jauneau threw out a poor pass which resulted in both Costelow and Steff Evans hacking the ball forward before Costelow collected a favourable bounce to score.

Challenge Cup Scarlets
PA

Halfpenny converted to give his side a handy 15-3 lead at the end of an entertaining first quarter but Clermont showed their mettle with Damian Penaud chipping over Halfpenny’s head and when the ball bounced loose, Simone picked up to score.

Two minutes later, Simone turned villain as his head-high challenge on Halfpenny saw the Scarlets’ full-back receive lengthy medical attention before leaving the field with the New Zealand centre ordered off.

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Costelow took over the goal-kicking but missed with the resulting penalty from 40 metres and his side suffered another setback when lock Vaea Fifita was sin-binned 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 Raka gather with Belleau converting before adding a penalty.

Scarlets immediately struck back by taking advantage of another French error when Williams picked off a telegraphed pass from Alex Newsome to run 30 metres with Costelow’s conversion leaving the home side 22-18 ahead at the interval.

Challenge Cup Scarlets
Press Association

Within four minutes of the restart, Gareth Davies was sin-binned for a trip and Clermont were immediately back in front when Raka bounced off two defenders to score his second try.

Kieran Hardy came on in place of Davies as Scarlets returned to 15 but the third quarter was dominated by the French visitors, who penned their opponents in their own half.

The hosts suffered a major blow when number eight Sione Kalamafoni was helped off with a leg injury before Clermont scored their fourth try when Beria drove over from close range.

Scarlets looked beaten but Costelow kicked a penalty before Conbeer squeezed over in the corner for Costelow to deliver the final blow and set up a home semi-final against Glasgow Warriors or Lions.

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Well a) poor French results doesn’t seem to effect the situation much. In fact one of the reasons given for this selection policy is that the French don’t tune in for foreign rugby content on the other side of the world, at a time when theyre not having their vino. So who would know the results? And b) this is the crux of the matter, they are legally abided to play them as part of WRs tier 1 reciprocal tours programme. The only real choice for the SH team is to treat it the same, which is fine when teams are happy to do that, but the AB’s have a totally anthesis policy/mentality so would never use the games in the same way.


So alligned with b) the only real option is to complain to those in control. I suspect that’s why weve seen France reneging on the practice, and you can only be left to think that if they hadn’t reneged, WR would have done something more drastic about it. Which of course would mean not just telling them to bugger off when they want to tour, it’s no one playing them (from t1 at least) at all (assuming they have no interest in scheduling match’s outside the windows, like Ireland and NZ are doing).


Then of course that means no involvement of France in the Nations Championship. Which means they are automatically the last ranked team in 6N to qualify, so the actual worst team in 6N gets to compete in it, making a mockery of the promotion and relegation WR wanted to happen between T1 and T2 for qualifying purposes. Yup, b) is just something nobody wants to happen. Well done FFR and LNR for making the tour work instead (how well is yet to be seen).

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