This 80 minutes will not make any Champions Cup highlights reel, and the fact the Scarlets went down to a last-gasp defeat made a drab evening worse still for their head coach, Wayne Pivac.
Racing 92 emerged with the spoils as their huge pack – to which the Scarlets had stood up impressively – won a late penalty try. The referee, Matthew Carley, ran under the posts after Gareth Davies dragged down a driving maul and the Wales scrum-half was sent to the sin-bin as a result. It was the crucial moment and left Scarlets heartbroken.
Earlier, Davies and his namesake Jonathan stamped their mark on the game for last season’s semi-finalists as the Scarlets scored twice in five second-half minutes to overturn a half-time deficit. Gareth Davies dived over for the first home score and then his international colleague slid through a clever grubber which Johnny McNicholl finished with aplomb. It looked like being enough for victory but Racing’s forwards had the last laugh.
“I haven’t seen the penalty try,” said Pivac. “We were disappointed to go into half-time 7-3 down because we conceded right on the whistle. We made a lot of errors in the first 20 to 30 minutes and we didn’t have much territory or possession either.
“I’m disappointed, but we know we have to be better and Leicester away next Friday night is a good opportunity for us to bounce back.”
Leigh Halfpenny opened the scoring but it was bitty, error-laden stuff. The rookie Scarlets fly-half Angus O’Brien summed up the first quarter with four straight mistakes.
On his first start, with regular playmaker Rhys Patchell out with concussion, O’Brien put the kick-off out on the full. He then dropped a high ball, saw a clearance charged down and then spilled a Gareth Davies pass before recovering with a pair of kicks to touch.
Right on the half-time whistle, the Racing scrum-half Xavier Chauveau sent Samson Lee the wrong way with a wonderful dummy and popped the ball up for Baptiste Chouzenoux who cantered to the line. Finn Russell converted.
Dan Jones replaced the injured O’Brien for the second half but the Scarlets finally broke through when Gareth Davies squeezed over from a scrum. Jonathan Davies then kicked to McNicholl in space and the winger cleverly used the wet weather to pick up and slide over. Halfpenny, critically, missed with both conversion attempts.
Two scores in five minutes left Racing to chase the game in difficult conditions but their pack finally ground the hosts down. From a lineout surge Carley decided the Scarlets were on the wrong side of the law and the automatic seven points ruined Pivac’s evening.
Racing’s Simon Zebo said: “The game turned into a bit of a kick-fest, but we got the luck and it’s not very often Leigh misses two kicks at goal. Momentum is a funny thing and this is a great result for us to start the tournament.”