Scarlets leave Irish red faced

Scarlets delivered a hammer blow to London Irish's hopes of qualifying from Pool Six of the Heineken Cup with a 31-22 comeback victory at Parc y Scarlets.

The Exiles appeared to be cruising towards the points at 22-10 ahead midway through the second half, however three unanswered tries in the latter stages secured a memorable win for the Welsh club.

Scarlets flanker Rob McCusker inspired the fightback with two tries in five minutes, and as Irish pushed for a winning score, Jonathan Davies darted over for a bonus-point try.

London Irish must now beat Pool Six leaders Leinster with a bonus-point at Twickenham next week to keep their qualification hopes alive.

Power

Rhys Priestland missed the first of four penalties over the course of the afternoon in the very first minute after Irish failed to deal with his kick-off.

And on three minutes the Exiles made him pay. Ryan Lamb's cross-kick caught Scarlets out of position, and Richard Thorpe showed great composure to flick the ball back to Tom Homer before running into touch, and the winger dived over in the corner.

Scarlets hit back after a prolonged spell of possession on nine minutes. Wing Andy Fendy showed great power and pace to skip past Homer, and he fed the supporting Davies who cantered over the line. Priestland's conversion put Scarlets 7-5 ahead.

Both sides continued to play free-flowing rugby and Irish regained the lead with the third try of the match on 16 minutes.

Number eight Chris Hala'ufia bounced through a couple of tackles and hooker Paice was on hand to pick up the pieces and dive over. Lamb's first successful conversion put the visitors back in front at 12-7.

Priestland's sub-standard place-kicking continued shortly after, and things went from bad to worse for the hosts on the half hour when second-rower Lou Reed was sent to the sin-bin for deliberate off-side.

Lamb tucked away the resulting penalty, only for Priestland to respond in kind to reduce the gap to 15-10 at half-time.

Deft

London Irish dominated both possession and territory at the start of the second half and they got their reward 10 minutes in when Hala'ufia latched onto Peter Hewat's hopeful kick upfield to score.

That converted try would have knocked the stuffing out of many teams, especially as Priestland's torrid kicking afternoon continued minutes later when he spurned his fourth penalty opportunity.

But once again Scarlets came roaring back, McCusker producing a great turn of foot to burst through the Exiles defence and score on 62 minutes.

Priestland's conversion took the score to 22-17, but before London Irish could regroup they found themselves behind for the first time in the match.

McCusker again produced the finish, neatly collecting Deacon Manu's deft offload to crash over the line. A resurgent Priestland then edged the Welsh side 24-22 ahead with the conversion.

The Exiles pressed and pressed for a bonus-point winning score, but in doing so they allowed Davies to waltz his way through and complete a victory which keeps Scarlets' qualification hopes well and truly alive.