The Scarlets looked to have a place in the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter finals sewn up as they led the Quins late on. A last eight tie with Stade Francais was on the cards but when the men in red conceded a late penalty, Quins struck.
Replacement Ben Botica nailed the kick to send Quins to Paris instead of Easterby’s side. But although the last minute defeat was tough to take, the Scarlets head coach stayed upbeat.
“There have been far more positives than negatives from this campaign, we have competed against every team for large periods,” he said.
“”We backed up last weekend’s performance against Racing, which we haven’t been able to do this season, and we competed against a really good Quins team.
“For large parts we were better than them but in the second-half, we offered them too much possession in our half. They kept coming back at us and we eventually gave away a bit of a soft penalty for them to get ahead.”
In a see-saw encounter, the Scarlets had gone into the break with a one point lead as scrum half Gareth Davies and Aaron Shingler both dived over. Wales centre Scott Williams added a third try after the break but Botica had the final say with his late penalty.
“I was really pleased with facets of our game but ultimately, we failed to manage the game when there was a point in it towards the end,” Easterby added.
“We put in a huge amount of effort but we just didn’t manage the game well enough.
“They chipped away at the territory and we couldn’t get into our game in the second half other than a few counter-attacks.”
