It was Steffon Armitage who finally ended the Welsh resistance when he crossed in the 71st minute for a try which Leigh Halfpenny, on his home debut for the double champions, converted. That took the gap to 15 points, but still left Toulon one try short of an expected bonus point.
The Scarlets, who played with black arm bands as a mark of respect to their former chief executive, Stuart Gallacher, who died earlier in the day, ended a highly creditable afternoon’s work with a try from Kristian Phillips to go with a first-half try from John Barclay.
Twice the visitors went down to 14-men, the first time after only six minutes when Rory Pitman saw yellow for a high tackle on wing David Smith. That allowed Halfpenny to kick the home side in front.
Rhys Priestland brought the visitors level with a penalty before Matt Giteau lit up the contest with a wonderful individual try. Halfpenny bizarrely failed to add the simple conversion after the ball fell off its tee half-way through his run-up and the Scarlets picked the ball up to save two points.
The Scarlets then hit back with Barclay’s try after good approach work by Scott and Liam Williams, but straight from the restart Scarlets skipper Scott Williams took too long over a clearance and Maxime Mermoz charged down his kick and went under the posts.
Halfpenny added the extras and then swapped penalties with Priestland before the interval to give Toulon a slender 18-13 lead at the break.
Toulon put the Scarlets under fierce pressure at the beginning of the second period but were finding it difficult to break through the visitors’ defence. Hooker Emyr Phillips then became the second Scarlets player to be sent to the bin for using his hands on the floor after David Smith had made a dangerous break for Toulon.
But after going to touch with the penalty, Toulon lost the line-out and the Scarlets were able to clear. A lack of precision from the champions, allied to the dogged Scarlets defence, meant this was never the romp the Toulon fans had hoped for.
Halfpenny added a long-range penalty with 15 minutes remaining to settle home nerves and then came the Armitage short range special, complete with conversion. Phillips raced over in the left corner with the last move of the match to show what the Scarlets are capable of, but they now need to beat Leicester Tigers at home in Round 2 to stay in the hunt for a quarter-final place.
