Jones seals Scarlets win
Stephen Jones' penalty gave Scarlets a 20-17 victory in Brive to keep them involved in European rugby this season.
Last Updated: 23/01/10 9:20pm
Stephen Jones' penalty gave Scarlets a 20-17 victory in Brive in their final Heineken Cup contest in Pool Six, to keep them involved in European rugby this season.
Jones sealed a fine double over Brive for the west Wales region, who now drop into the last eight of the Amlin Challenge Cup after finishing second in the group.
The visitors became the first Welsh side to win in Brive in the competition despite playing 20 minutes with a man less after two late yellow cards.
The French side were without a single point from their first five games, but they at least managed to grab a solitary losing bonus point with the narrow margin of the win for the Scarlets.
Bright start
Brive started brightly and scored two tries in the opening half hour through Jean-Philippe Bonrepaux and Horacio Agulla, but two crucial missed conversions from Andy Goode kept the score down to 10-0.
A Jones penalty bang on the half hour sparked Scarlets into life, with Damian Welch and Morgan Stoddart touching down either side of the interval, with Jones adding the extras to lead 17-10.
Ronnie Cooke's try and Luciano Orquera conversion drew Brive level on the hour mark, and Scarlets were not helped by Josh Turnbull being sent to the sin bin just three minutes earlier.
The visitors forced enough pressure with 14 men to hand Jones a penalty chance and he duly found the target to put them three points ahead with 16 minutes remaining.
Turnbull had only been back on the pitch for two minutes when Reed then saw yellow for deliberately dragging down the maul and he had to sit out most of the closing stages.
Brive enjoyed more possession but crucially could not find the breakthrough and some disciplined defending from the Welsh side saw them grind out the victory.
