Eight-try holders Bordeaux swat aside Scarlets

Investec Champions Cup Pool 4

Bordeaux Begles (31) 50

Tries: Jalibert 2, Poirot, Barlot, Jacobs, Uberti, Mousques, Bielle-Biarrey Cons: Jalibert 3, Carbery 2

Scarlets (14) 21

Bordeaux-Begles continued their Champions Cup dominance by easing to an eight-try victory over Scarlets.

The Welsh side took an unlikely lead through Fletcher Anderson, but the hosts responded with five first half tries, including two for in-form fly-half Matthieu Jalibert.

Henry Thomas kept Scarlets in touch, and while the defence put up more resistance after the break, the title holders crossed for three more tries.

Anderson’s second saw Scarlets in the hunt for a consolation bonus-point, but tired bodies could not find a way over the line.

With the hosts winning 13 of their last 15 European games, few had given a changed Scarlets side any hope of upsetting the French giants.

But they were uncharacteristically asleep in the opening stages as Scarlets started brightly in front of a packed Stade Chaban-Delmas.

They showed intent by turning down attempts at posts and it paid off as Anderson crashed over from a quick-tap penalty.

But no sooner had travelling fans finished celebrating and Bordeaux were back level, with Jalibert taking full advantage of a sloppy re-start to chip through, re-gather and touch down.

The skipper Jefferson Poirot added a close range effort soon after while a perfectly executed line-out gifted Gaetan Barlot a third score on 20 minutes.

The bonus-point arrived five minutes later when Scarlets paid the ultimate price for being caught offside. Jalibert conducted a devastating counter attack, linking up with France team-mates Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey.

Scarlets kept in the fight and the forwards showed great patience with Thomas eventually squeezing over.

Scarlets defended heroically in the second-half as both sides introduced their benches early.

And it took almost 20 minutes for Bordeaux to find a breakthrough after Sam Costelow held up an effort from a charging Temo Matiu.

Scarlets were reduced to 14 players with Jarrod Taylor’s sin-binning and the damage was almost instant with Pablo Uberti one of several players queuing up to score out wide.

Still a man down, Scarlets found their third try of the evening and it was another close-range effort from Anderson who is proving a valuable signing from Crusaders this summer.

But slim hopes of a comeback took a significant blow as some tired defence saw Xan Mousques power over, with his effort quickly followed by a break away from Bielle-Biarrey, with Joey Carbery’s conversion taking Bordeaux’s score to half a century.

Bordeaux-Begles fly-half Joey Carbery said:

“Thankfully we got the result, especially after going away to Bulls last week.

“Training and playing [with players like Jalibert] you get to see how special they are. It’s a privilege to be out here.

“To win in Europe is tough, especially at home we have to win these games, and I’m just thankful we have done that.”

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said:

“It is obviously disappointing that we didn’t get anything out of the game, we were fighting hard for that fourth try at the end.

“I can’t fault the effort of the boys, it was just our inaccuracies that hurt us out there, you can’t allow a side of the quality of Bordeaux easy ins and I felt we did that at times.

“Our forwards carried strongly, I thought Fletcher Anderson at eight was excellent, he has been a really good signing for us.

“When we were in their 22 we took our tries well, it was just frustrating that the game got away through our inaccuracies.”

Both sides return to festive league action before playing their final two Pool 4 games in January.

Bordeaux face Northampton Saints on Saturday, 10 January (15:15 GMT) and Scarlets welcome Pau in the day’s later kick-off (20:00 GMT).

Bordeaux-Begles: Mousques; Penaud, Uberti, Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey; Jalibert, Page-Relo: Poirot (capt), Barlot, Falatea, Palu, Coleman, Jacobs, Vergnes-Taillefer, Matiu.

Replacements: Everitt, Perchaud, B Tameifuna, J Gray, Gardrat, Retiere, Carbery, R Janse van Rensburg.

Scarlets: J Davies; Lewis, Roberts, James, Mee; Hawkins, Blacker; Hepburn, Van der Merwe, Thomas, Douglas, Ball, Macleod (capt), Davis, Anderson.

Replacements: Elias, Mathias, H O’Connor, Lousi, J Taylor, A Hughes, Costelow, Page.

Sin bin: Taylor (56)

Referee: Morne Ferreira (South Africa)

Assistants: Griffin Colby & Christopher Allison (South Africa)