Five penalties: Riaan Swanepoel
Brive edged Scarlets 15-11 at Stade Amédée-Domenech on Sunday to ensure the Amlin Challenge Cup semi-finals will be contested exclusively by French clubs.
Brive will now travel Biarritz on Saturday 28 April while Toulon will host Stade Français on Friday 27 April.
Scarlets scored the only try of the game through full-back Liam Williams but it was not enough to topple their hosts, who scored all their points via the boot of inside centre Riaan Swanepoel.
Les Corréziens built their victory on the back of a dominant scrum and a staunch defence.
The scores were locked at 6-6 at half time as Stephen Jones and Swanepoel traded penalties.
Swanepoel put Brive back in front after the break with two more penalties as the Scarlets buckled.
The Scarlets then stunned the home side when Williams plunged over after a slick backline move just before the hour mark to narrow the gap to a single point.
But Swanepoel's fifth three-pointer of the evening two minutes from time ended Welsh hopes in the tournament.
The scorers:
For Brive:
Pens: Swanepoel 5
For Scarlets:
Try: L Williams
Pens: SM Jones 2
Yellow card: Geraghty (Brive - 52nd min)
Brive: 15 Mathias Atayi, 14 Jacques Boussuge, 13 Ronnie Cooke, 12 Riaan Swanepoel, 11 Sevania Galala, 10 Shane Geraghty, 9 Jean-Baptiste Pejoine, 8 Petrus Hauman, 7 Alexandre Bias, 6 Vincent Forgues, 5 Olivier Caisso, 4 Julien Le Devedec, 3 Pat Barnard, 2 Virgile Lacombe (capt), 1 Jefferson Poirot.
Replacements: 16 Iuri Natriashvili, 17 Davit Khinchagishvili, 18 Alexandre Barozzi, 19 Retief Uys, 20 Poutasi Luafutu, 21 Augustin Figuerola, 22 Scott Spedding, 23 Arnaud Mignardi.
Scarlets: 15 Liam Williams, 14 George North, 13 Gareth Maule, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 Andrew Fenby, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Jon Edwards, 6 Josh Turnbull, 5 Damian Welch, 4 Sione Timani, 3 Peter Edwards, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Rhodri Jones.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Phil John, 18 Simon Gardiner, 19 Kieran Murphy, 20 Kieran Murphy, 21 Rhodri Williams, 22 Rhys Priestland, 23 Sean Lamont.
Venue: Stadium Municipal
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees: Greg Garner (England), Paul Dix (England)
Comments
makemehappy says...
@jontheref - so you did say that. Didn't say you didn't.What I was asking was whether you thought that video refs could look at incidents that aren't over the try line - not what the officials said to one another. That isn't relevant if they rules don't allow for more than one option. I know there have been calls to look at everything associated with the act of scoring, but I hadn't heard (sadly) that it had been introduced.
So whilst we disagree about the momentum issue, I think we agree that a try had to be awarded given the ball was grounded, and the TMO can only comment on that.
Posted 18:55 09th April 2012
jontheref says...
makemehappy
I said I could not hear what the asked question was.
I am commenting on what happened, Liam (S15), got up when held.
If this is outside what the TMO can rule on, (with hindsight, his comment of insisting the ball hit the line bears this out!), fair enough.
As I was saying, Scarlets were lucky to get away with that, which negates any belief of Barnes favouring the Brive tactics at the scrum.
Jack in the box excepted, they were dominant most of the time.
Agree about poor kicking, Jones seemed to be rushing, when his opposite number took up to 2 minutes for one of his kicks!
Posted 16:02 09th April 2012
makemehappy says...
@jontheref - how could the TMO not give the try. Momentum suggested there was no double movement (to me unlike you). He presumably couldn't rule on that anyway. The ball clearly touched the try line - result - try.
I agree the Scarlets were out muscled. There's a few props which need to be brought back to Wales!
Posted 08:34 09th April 2012
SpanishJack says...
yet again poor kicking cost a Welsh team a place in the final rounds of a competition. Stephen, it's time to go and Rhys, you aint what you used to be when it comes to kicking.
Posted 22:30 08th April 2012
jontheref says...
Out muscled.
I was not happy with Barnes and how he refereed the scrums, allowing Lacombte to be a jack in the box at most scrums.
But, I would not have given the try if I was TMO either!
Liam was held, got up, tackled again, and then reached and "scored".
Cold not hear the intercahnge between barnes and the TMO, so did not hear the question, which seems to rule these days.
True nuetral for all four games in three weeks time.
Posted 22:20 08th April 2012