Rowland Phillips’ Italian side had 11 players missing on World Cup duty, while the Scarlets were without 10, but the biggest factor on opening night was the torrential rain that started just before kick-off.
That meant the error count was high for both sides and it took until the second half before the game saw its first try. The honour of scoring the first try of the competitive campaign for the home side fell to Wales prop Rhys Thomas and wing Andy Fenby added a second.
Other than those two scores the rest of the game’s points all came from the boot. Dan Newton’s three first-half penalties edged Aironi’s new South African recruit Naas Olivier’s two to give the home side a 9-6 interval lead and there were more to come after the break.
Newton ended with a match tally of 19 points with two successful conversions and five penalties and Rhys Jones added a sixth penalty for the Scarlets before the end. Olivier could only add one more penalty to his side’s tally in a one-sided second half.
