Toulon suffocate the Scarlets

Toulon secured a home quarter-final in the Champions Cup with a comfortable 26-3 victory over the Scarlets in West Wales.

The Welsh region played with plenty of guts and drive but just lacked the execution of their visitors and had no answer to the depth of Toulon's bench late on.

Steven Shingler scored the only points for the home team with a first-half penalty, while his Wales counterpart Leigh Halfpenny finished with 13 points.

The visitors took full control in the opening quarter, racking up points on the board thanks to Mathieu Bastareaud's try and the boots of Halfpenny and Nicolás Sánchez.

Using their overlap the France centre couldn't miss after Toulon's scrum had sent an early message with a dominant shove in a sign of things to come.

Halfpenny was returning to Wales for the first time in club rugby since he joined the French and European champions this season.

His radar was working perfectly, as the conversion of Bastareaud's try and then two penalties opened up a 13-0 advantage, before Sánchez slotted a clinical drop goal.

The Scarlets had looked lethal in the reverse fixture once they breached the Toulon line and they showed similar ambition on home soil, trying to get behind the defence and create chances.

In-form back Scott Williams impressed again and Steven Shingler's penalty put the Scarlets on the scoreboard, although Halfpenny maintained the 16-point advantage with his third penalty of the evening.

Toulon's power has undone many a defence before, but despite multiple charges at the Scarlets' line there was to be no second try for visiting side before half-time, leading 19-3 at the interval.

A rare miss for Halfpenny at the start of the second half prevented any further damage on the scoreboard for the Scarlets.

Too often Toulon were just missing the final pass or finishing touch, but Bryan Habana's intervention ended that run of frustration.

The Springbok took the pass out wide five metres out and danced his way through three defenders to score Toulon's second try.

No love was lost between either side and a late block on Steven Shingler had tempers flaring for a moment as Toulon threw on their bench including Martin Castrogiovanni and Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe.

Steffon Armitage was at his masterful best pillaging the Scarlets ball at the ruck, winning a number of penalties and seeming to relish every minute of it. On two occasions with the Scarlets threatening Toulon's line, his interventions were of huge importance.

Not everything however went Toulon's way. A run of penalties led to Jocelino Suta seeing yellow after disrupting the Scarlets lineout, giving the hosts a personnel advantage.

Despite plenty of effort though the Scarlets couldn't find a way through Toulon's barrier, more impeccable breakdown work from Toulon silencing the crowd every time the noise levels rose.

Armitage was unsurprisingly named Man of the Match on cue after another turnover, the grin on his face summing up a fine game for the England international as Toulon returned to a full compliment of players with Suta's return.

An entertaining final few minutes saw both teams going for the jugular but without any final score, Rhys Priestland's chip not quite coming off as Toulon's suffocating defence gave them victory.

The scorers:

For Scarlets:
Pen: S Shingler

For Toulon:
Tries: Bastareaud, Habana
Cons: Halfpenny 2
Pens: Halfpenny 4
Drop Goal: Sánchez
Yellow Card: Suta

Scarlets: 15 Steven Shingler, 14 Harry Robinson, 13 Regan King, 12 Scott Williams (c), 11 Hadleigh Parkes, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Aled Davies, 8 Rob McCusker, 7 John Barclay, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Lewis Rawlins, 4 George Earle, 3 Peter Edwards, 2 Ryan Elias, 1 Rob Evans
Replacements: 16 Darran Harris, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Jacobie Adriaanse, 19 Sion Bennett, 20 Rory Pitman, 21 Rhodri Williams, 22 Josh Lewis, 23 Kristian Phillips

Toulon: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Drew Mitchell, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Chris Masoe, 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 Juan Smith, 5 Jocelino Suta, 4 Romain Taofifenua, 3 Carl Hayman (c), 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Xavier Chiocci
Replacements: 16 Jean-Charles Orioli, 17 Alexandre Menini, 18 Martin Castrogiovanni, 19 Mamuka Gorgodze, 20 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, 21 Rudi Wulf, 22 Eric Escande, 23 Bakkies Botha

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees: Tim Wigglesworth (England), Gareth Copsey (England)