The Toyota Cheetahs' European campaign hangs by a thread after they narrowly lost a tough battle to the Welsh team Scarlets 20-17 in their EPCR Challenge Cup match on Friday night.
The Cheetahs will want to kick themselves as they made a plethora of mistakes in driving rain and struggled to penetrate the Scarlets' defence, losing the ball close to the line on almost a half dozen occasions when it mattered most.
They will now need to win their last game against Section Paloise next week if they are to stand a chance of qualifying for the playoffs. The French side lost their EPCR game to another Welsh side, the Dragons 21-15 on Friday night as well.
As it stands the Cheetahs are currently fifth on the log in Pool B, with the top six qualifying, but that doesn’t take into account the fact that all three teams below them - Benetton, Stade Francais and Bayonne - all play this weekend and could leapfrog them by the end of the round.
You have to feel for the Cheetahs, who lost their two talismen in Ruan Pienaar and Frans Steyn earlier in the week but put in a stirring performance to come close and had a few decisions gone their way they could easily have taken the points on offer.
They may be a bit aggrieved at a few calls that would normally be high tackles that were allowed to slide by the reffing team, but if they look at their game overall, they would have to agree that their own errors at crucial times was what cost them.
In the first half, for instance, they had two clear scoring opportunities that they fluffed close to the line when they lost the ball on attack.
Compare this to the Scarlets, whose two entries produced 10 points - a penalty to the reliable boot of Leigh Halfpenny and a try by stretching the defence and letting the ball do the work to see winger Steffan Evans run in and take the home side ahead early on.
?? @Scarlets_Rugby strike first ??
— EPCR Challenge Cup (@ChallengeCup_) January 13, 2023
A perfect grubber that floats into Steff Evans’ hands ??
?? Watch LIVE on @S4C, @SuperSportTV and @FloRugby#ChallengeCupRugby pic.twitter.com/xm4K9Z9eCx
Siya Masuku pulled three points back with the boot, but the Cheetahs had another attack on the stroke of halftime go wrong and had to settle for the deficit at the end of 40 minutes.
They were given a boost when Carwyn Tuipulotu was given a yellow card after Sibabalo Qoma jumped to catch a ball in the air and was tipped over the Scarlets defender due to momentum.
In that time, the visitors scored twice - the first through Louis van der Westhuizen who went over on the back of a rolling maul and then a beautiful run by Daniel Kasende, after halfback Rewan Kruger put him away to take the Cheetahs into the lead.
It didn’t last more than three minutes when the Scarlets hit back, once again finding numbers on the outside for Johnny McNichol to run in a simple overlap try and level the scores.
Halfpenny’s boot was on song for the conversion and added a penalty shortly afterwards to put the home side into the lead.
While the Cheetahs tried to snatch the win, the conditions and their own handling let them down.
SCORERS
Scarlets - tries: Steffan Evans, Johnny McNichol. Conversions: Leigh Halfpenny (2). Penalties: Halfpenny (2).
Toyota Cheetahs - tries: Louis van der Westhuizen, Daniel Kasende. Conversions: Siya Masuku (2). Penalty: Masuku.