Berne's night for Leinster

Scarlets saw their perfect start to this season's Heineken Cup come to an emphatic end as they were beaten 32-7 at home by Leinster.

The defending champions claimed a second successive win on their travels in Europe to blow Pool Six wide open at the halfway stage.

Stand-in fly-half Shaun Berne scored 17 points, his haul including one of his side's three first-half tries, as the visitors claimed a vital bonus point.

A converted try from Jonathan Davies was all that the hosts managed in reply and they face a daunting task in the return fixture in Dublin next weekend.

Fronting up

Scarlets head coach Nigel Davies had spoken prior to the game about his side having to "front up" to the challenge of facing the current kings of Europe.

Instead his side simply failed to perform on their big night, particularly in the first 40 minutes, as a porous defensive line allowed their opponents to build up a sizeable lead.

It took Leinster just four minutes to break the deadlock, Shane Horgan cutting a path towards the try-line despite plenty of bodies being in his way.

Berne, playing in the half-backs due to Jonathan Sexton's broken hand, added the conversion before slotting over a penalty at the end of a breathless opening quarter.

Jamie Heaslip's pick-up and charge led to a second Leinster try, the ball being worked out wide from the breakdown to Isa Nacewa, who tip-toed down the left touchline before sending the pass inside for Gordon D'Arcy to finish.

Before the break things got even worse for the Scarlets. Proving they are just as quick in mind as they are body, scrum-half Eoin Reddan took a quick line-out that caught the defence short out wide for Berne to dive over on the right.

Trailing by 22 at the break and perhaps stung by some harsh words during the interval, Scarlets came out fired up at the start of the second half.

Within four minutes they had their first points on the board, centre Jonathan Davies powering his way through and Stephen Jones adding the extras.

Faint hopes

When Nathan Hines was sin-binned for infringing at a ruck soon after, the home faithful sensed that a dramatic European comeback could now be on the cards to make it three wins from three in the competition.

Those dreams died just eight minutes later, though, when the Scarlets found themselves down to 14 following Sean Lamont's failure to use his arms whilst attempting to halt the progress of the dangerous Nacewa.

The hit not only cost the Welsh side their numerical advantage but also three more points; Berne putting the penalty over to make it 25-7.

To complete a perfect night for both himself and his team, the former Bath man had a hand in the fourth try for flanker Sean O'Brien, throwing a superb dummy to create space, and then slotted over the conversion from out wide.