Wales will know on Monday whether their in-form centre Scott Williams is going to be fit for the autumn Tests, but for Leicester their future on the international stage will take a little longer to decide.
Leicester left Parc y Scarlets on Saturday night with nothing to show for their efforts andnow face the champions, Toulon, home and away before Christmas to decide whether they will again exit a competition they once dominated before the knockout stages begin. Toulon, seeking to become the first side to dominate Europe for three seasons on the trot, are riding high after consigning Ulster to bottom spot in the group; Leicester, as their director of rugby admitted, are in deep trouble.
“It is going to be tough,” Richard Cockerill said after seeing his side cough up two tries in an error-strewn performance. “You probably have to win four games to get out of this group. We have won one and got four to go: Toulon back to back and obviously Scarlets at home and Ulster away … it’s all to play for, but getting nothing out of this game makes it exceptionally difficult.”
In a precise analysis of Leicester’s faults, he added: “We gave away two soft tries and our execution was poor. We couldn’t hang on to the ball and if you can’t hang on to the ball and give points away you are going to lose and that’s exactly what happened.”
After wins against Harlequins in the league and then Ulster in Europe, it looked as though Leicester’s miserable start to the season – they were 10th in the Premiership at one point – might be over. After all, Scarlets, closer to the bottom than the top of the Guinness Pro12, had also come away from Toulon empty handed and hurting. But it was not to be.
First Anthony Allen, normally the most reliable of centres, fumbled a metre from the Scarlets line and then, at the other end, Miles Benjamin, caught in two minds about whether to run out of defence or kick, simply dropped the ball at the feet of the wing Harry Robinson, who duly scored. The third element in the Leicester horror show came when Ben Youngs also tried a little adventure to relieve the Scarlets second-half pressure.
Last week the ricochet went his way and Leicester beat Ulster; on Saturday the England scrum-half lost control trying to free his arms and then, attempting to retrieve the ball, merely patted it to his opposite number, Aled Davies, with no one in the 40 metres between him and the line.
It was enough to earn Davies the man-of-the-match , whereas it could easily have been shared by their back-row trio of John Barclay, who is clearly miffed at not getting a place in the Scotland squad, Aaron Shingler and James Davies, who replaced Rory Pitman during a first half in which Scarlets players were dropping like flies.
Jake Ball, another of those of interest to Warren Gatland and the Wales coaches, did not even make kick-off, being replaced by Richard Kelly, who in turn lasted only 27 minutes before breaking his arm. However, the worst news for Wales was that Scott Williams has hamstring problems less than a fortnight before the autumn Tests begin against Australia.
The centre limped off after 19 minutes. He was later said to be “walking around the changing room”, but he will undergo tests on Monday to see the extent of the damage and the length of his lay-off.
The damage to Leicester was more obvious. “It was important we got something out of tonight and we didn’t, which could be terminal for us,” said Cockerill.
Williams’s departure was also bad news for another with Wales ambitions, Rhys Priestland. After three poor kicks it meant that replacement Steve Shingler took over the kicking, landing two from three to nudge the points gap out to 12 on a night when all the kickers had difficulty and Leicester found it difficult to retain the ball.
Whereas Cockerill was left to ponder the difficulties of Leicester’s run-up to Christmas, the Scarlets new head coach, Wayne Pivac, was able to indulge in a little back-slapping. With Ulster looking vulnerable, at least at the hands of Toulon, who denied them a bonus point at Ravenhill on Saturday, the New Zealander senses that Scarlets might be up for a rare run in Europe.
“We couldn’t have asked for much more, to be honest,” said Pivac. “We were well aware that home games are vital. Going into it there was pressure to win this game, otherwise we would have been well behind the other two. The boys really wanted to win that one badly.”
Llanelli L Williams; Robinson, Tagicakibau, S Williams (capt; S Shingler, 19), K Phillips; Priestland, A Davies; Evans (John, 61), E Phillips (Myhill, 56), Lee (R Jones, 53), Kelly (Rawlins 27; J Williams, 73), Synman, A Shingler, Barclay, Pitman (J Davies, 11).
Tries Robinson, A Davies. Con S Shingler. Pen S Shingler.
Leicester Tait; Scully, Goneva, Allen (Burns 50), Benjamin; O Williams, B Youngs (capt; Mele 68); Ayerza (Rizzo 67), Ghiraldini, Balmain; Thorn, Kitchener, Gibson, Salvi, Crane (Barbieri 67).
Pen O Williams.
Referee John Lacey (Ire). Attendance 8,235.
