Pivac proud of battling Scarlets

The Llanelli outfit trailed 19-3 at the break with centre Mathieu Bastareaud crossing for the game's opening score after just three minutes.

But despite the European champions bringing on a bench chock-a-block with international experience in the second-half, the young Scarlets side improved and avoided a defeat by a massive margin.

And Pivac insisted he was pleased by the performance despite finishing bottom of their European pool, and that he is looking forward to turning his attention back to the GUINNESS PRO12.

"In the first half I thought it was a case of us waiting to see what they were doing and showing them a bit too much respect," he said.

"In the second half we were a lot better, we restricted them to just one try and seven points and created a couple of opportunities ourselves.

"I thought the penalty count at the breakdown weighed heavily against us and that was hard to counter.

"But the second half was pleasing particularly when you consider the quality of player they were able to bring on.

"Toulon are a great side and deserved their win, our focus now is the GUINNESS PRO12 and finishing in the top six to qualify for this competition for next season."

Wales centre Scott Williams had to depart the field in the second-half due to a nasty-looking hip injury, but was adamant after the game it was not too serious ahead of the Six Nations.

He added: "The younger boys have come in, gave 100%, and did a good job but at the end of the day Toulon were just too strong.

"I've enjoyed Europe personally, we have to focus now back on the league. This is a competition we want to be playing in.

"There's a big focus on getting into that top six in the GUINNESS PRO12. This is the competition you want to play in; this is the highest we can play at this level."

Follow us on Facebook, join the conversation on Twitter, sign up to our YouTube channel for extensive match highlights and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates on the GUINNESS PRO12