Castres Olympique 34-16 Scarlets: Scarlets succumb to Castres' class
- Published
Ioan Lloyd impressed as he continues his bid to be Wales' fly-half for the Six Nations
European Challenge Cup |
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Castres: (17) 34 |
Tries: Raisuqe, Fernandez, Papalii, Dumora, Le Brun Pen: Le Brun Cons: Le Brun (3) |
Scarlets: (9) 16 |
Tries: Lloyd Pens: Lloyd (3) Con: Lloyd |
Scarlets began their European Challenge Cup campaign with a battling loss in Castres.
The French side sit third in the Top 14 and showed their class, capitalising on poor discipline as Scarlets were twice reduced to 14 men in the first half.
Josaia Raisuqe, Jeremy Fernandez, Abraham Papalii, Julien Dumora and Louis le Brun all scored home tries in damp conditions.
Ioan Lloyd responded with 16 points for Scarlets, including their one try.
Castres scored four tries while Scarlets were a man light, through yellow cards to Steff Evans and Kieran Hardy at either end of the first half.
After former Fiji sevens star Raisuqe stole in on the back of a driving maul within the first two minutes, the home side increased their lead through Fernandez and Papalii from close range while Hardy was off the pitch.
Scarlets made eight changes to the side which beat Cardiff at the Arms Park but it was their star man from last weekend, Lloyd, who scored all their points in the first half as he kicked three penalties.
Fijian international Vilimoni Botitu burst through and set up his captain Dumora to score under the posts right at the start of the second half.
Problems at the line-out meant Scarlets failed to capitalise on promising attacking positions but when Johnny Williams caught 20-year-old fly-half Le Brun shaping to kick, Wales hopeful Lloyd scooped up the ball and gleefully dived over under the posts.
Le Brun would make up for his error, scoring the try of the game, diving over in the corner after a succession of offloads from Botitu and former Glasgow man Leone Nakarawa.
Castres: Julien Dumora (capt); Josaia Raisuqe, Adrien Seguret, Vilimoni Botitu, Antoine Bouzerand; Louis le Brun, Jeremy Fernandez; Wayan de Benedittis, Gaetan Barlot, Aurelien Azar, Florent Vanverberghe, Tom Staniforth, Romain Macurdy, Baptiste Cope, Abraham Papalii.
Replacements: Pierre Colonna, Antoine Tichit, Levan Chilachava, Leone Nakarawa, Yann Peysson, Gauthier Doubrere, Pierre Popelin, Theo Chabouni.
Scarlets: Tom Rogers; Steff Evans, Jonathan Davies (capt), Johnny Williams, Ryan Conbeer; Ioan Lloyd, Kieran Hardy; Steff Thomas, Ryan Elias, Joe Jones, Morgan Jones, Jac Price, Ben Williams, Teddy Leatherbarrow, Carwyn Tuipulotu.
Replacements: Shaun Evans, Sam O'Connor, Harri O'Connor, Ed Scragg, Iwan Shenton, Archie Hughes, Charlie Titcombe, Ioan Nicholas.
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Geo)
Assistant referees: Saba Abuashvili & Shota Tevzadze (Geo)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (Ita)