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Rugby Union

Scarlets stunned by French outfit

11/11/2007

Llanelli Scarlets suffered a shock 48-21 battering against French outfit Clermont Auvergne in a nightmare start to their Heineken Cup campaign.

The Welsh side trailed 20-7 at the break after a brace from Clermont captain Aurelien Rougerie and Julien Malzieu touching down.

Rougerie completed his hat-trick in the second half while Julien Bonnaire, Brock James and replacement prop Thomas Domingo also crashed over.

Dafydd James, Dwayne Peel and Regan King scored for the Scarlets.

Phil Davies, the Scarlets' director of rugby, admitted his side were poor at the start of the second half.

"We gave ourselves some real momentum towards the end, but it was too late to change the result," Davies said.

"We're obviously disappointed not to have a bonus point, particularly in a pool this tough.

"We always feel we can win a game, but we made a lot of mistakes that we don't usually make."

Elsewhere, Cardiff Blues came from behind to thump Bristol 34-18.

The Blues romped to victory thanks to a brace from Martyn Williams, and tries from Maama Molitika and Jamie Robinson.

Bristol touched down twice through David Hill and Tom Arscott while Jason Strange kicked two penalties.

The turning point came in the second half when Bristol prop Darren Crompton was sin-binned for a high tackle.

Elsewhere, Saracens scored four tries to beat Glasgow Warriors 33-31.

Hugh Vyvyan, Rodd Penney, Ben Skirvin, and Kameli Ratuvou crashed over for the Guinness Premiership side.