Scarlets make it to semis despite humiliating loss to Treviso

Scarlets 17 Treviso 41

The Scarlets crashed to an embarrassing four tries to one defeat to Treviso at Parc y Scarlets but still managed to book their place in the RaboDirect PRO12 end of season play-offs.

The region sealed a semi-final shot against Ulster in Ravenhill next Friday after their Welsh rivals the Ospreys went down 37-19 in Leinster.

Treviso were celebrating their first double over Scarlets with tries for No 8 Robert Barbieri, flanker Monoa Vosawai, replacement centre Luca Mosari and wing Christian Loamanu. Outside-half Kris Burton kicked 21 points.

The west Wales region, for whom George North was playing his last home game before he moves to Northampton next season, knew they could take nothing for granted.

The Scarlets made a late change with skipper Rob McCusker pulling out with a rib injury. He was replaced at No. 8 by Kieran Murphy with Wales centre Jonathan Davies taking over the captaincy.

The Scarlets went into a 3-0 lead with an Owen Williams penalty on four minutes after Treviso went in from the side in trying to halt a useful home attack.

The home scrum was dominant but lost two crucial line-outs which all but handed the Italians 10 points.

Treviso, who played some positive rugby against a nervous looking Scarlets, gained possession from a loose home line-out with skipper Antonio Pavanello putting Barbieri over for a try converted by Burton.

Scarlets responded with a second Williams penalty to give the outside-half 100 points for the season after Treviso had been caught offside just outside their 22, but three minutes later another mistake at a line-out led to Burton kicking a penalty.

Two more Williams penalties edged Scarlets into the lead for three minutes before Burton’s second penalty saw Treviso back in front at half-time at 13-12.

And Burton also kicked another penalty two minutes after the break before Treviso had two forwards – replacement flanker Valerio Bernabo and prop Jacobus Roux – sent to the sin-bin within a minute of each other. But after that Treviso scored 31 unanswered points.

Incredibly, down to 13 men Treviso scored 10 points with a fourth Burton penalty and a try for Vosawai in the left corner, converted by Burton to give the Italians a 26-12 lead.

With Scarlets in disarray, the Welsh region’s humiliation was complete as they leaked two more tries.

Morisi stepped out of a couple of tackles to go over for Treviso’s third try 15 minutes from time and eight minutes later Loamanu was over in the right corner.

Burton kicked a fourth penalty before Scarlets full-back Liam Williams grabbed a consolation try in the final minute.