Pivac Says Scarlets Ready For European Test In France

Wayne Pivac reckons the Scarlets have given their Champions Cup challenge a huge boost with the victory in the West Wales derby.

Pivac’s men get their European campaign underway at former champions Toulon next Sunday.

And then they face Bath Rugby just five days later at Parc y Scarlets on Friday October 20.

But the head coach insists Scarlets will be full of confidence after beating the Ospreys 19-18 at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.

Pivac said: “There’s a five day turnaround from Toulon to Bath.

“It’s going to be tough, we know that. That’s why it was important to get across the line for the confidence.

“Scoring three tries in the second half at the Liberty isn’t a bad effort.

“We know we’ve got good strike power, it’s just about the self-belief and that is growing all the time.

“After last season this team will continue to grow and build in confidence.

“It was really important to finish this block with a win and the aim was to finish this block at the top of our conference and we’ve managed to do that so we’re very pleased.

The Ospreys, desperate to avoid a record fifth successive defeat, led by nine points at half-time with the Scarlets forced onto the defensive.

But three second-half tries was enough to give Pivac’s side the narrowest of wins despite Dan Biggar continuing to rack up points for the home side with the boot.

Gareth Davies struck twice with prop Samson lee adding the other try.

Pivac added: “Clearly in the first half we didn’t have enough possession and the possession we did have we gifted back to the Ospreys.

“We had to defend a lot more than we would have liked to have but having said that our defence kept us in the game.

“We talked about it at half time, and we were upbeat about it and praised the boys for the efforts they put in but asked them to start putting some pressure on the opposition, which is exactly what we did scoring that try at the start of the second half when we were down to fourteen men.

“We were probably a bit disappointed in the end that we didn’t score that fourth try but also relieved to get the four points.

“They didn’t disappoint, they really threw it at us in the first half. We had to repel what they threw at us and we did and they didn’t score a try.

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