The 2004–05 season was the second season in the history of the

Llanelli Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby com ...

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

team. They competed in the

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organization, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places pa ...

, in which they finished in fifth place, as well as the Celtic Cup and

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

. They reached the final of the Celtic Cup, losing 27–16 to

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

Lansdowne Road Lansdowne Road Stadium (, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for the Aviva Stadium on ...

in Dublin, but won just two matches in their Heineken Cup pool, finishing third behind

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

and

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The club plays in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby union. It was formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. ...

Celtic League

Matches

Table

Celtic Cup

Heineken Cup

Pool stage

The Scarlets were drawn into Pool 3 for the

2004–05 Heineken Cup The 2004–05 Heineken Cup was the tenth edition of the Heineken Cup. Competing teams, from England national rugby union team, England, France national rugby union team, France, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Italy national rugby unio ...

. For the second season in a row, they were paired with

, along with

from France and

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

from Scotland. They began the pool stage on 22 October with a narrow 9–6 defeat at home to Toulouse, a game they should have won thanks to two missed try-scoring opportunities. The following week they faced Northampton, whom they had beaten twice the previous season, but this time they managed just a penalty as Northampton recorded a 25–3 win. In December, the Scarlets recorded their first wins, home and away against Glasgow. In the away leg on 5 December, the Scarlets claimed the bonus point before half-time thanks to tries from Gavin Thomas,

Matthew Watkins Matthew Jason Watkins (2 September 1978 – 7 March 2020) was a Welsh professional rugby union player who played as a Centre (rugby union), centre. He was commonly known by the name Matthew J. Watkins to avoid confusion with another Welsh rugby ...

(2) and

Garan Evans Garan Rhys Evans (born 16 February 1973) is a Welsh former rugby union footballer, who played as a fullback for Llanelli, the Llanelli Scarlets and Wales. Evans was born in Trimsaran and educated at Ysgol y Strade in Llanelli. He made his int ...

, and held off a comeback by Glasgow to claim a 29–26 win. Another bonus-point victory at Stradey Park the following week, thanks to braces from

Aisea Havili Aisea Havili Kaufusi (born 11 March 1977) is a Tongan rugby union footballer, who currently played most recently as a winger for the Cornish Pirates in National Division One as well as for the Tonga national team. Club career Havili began his ...

Tal Selley Taliesin Selley (born 20 April 1980) is a Welsh former rugby union footballer, who played either at centre or on the wing. After five seasons at the Llanelli Scarlets he signed a three-year deal with the Ospreys where he played in the histori ...

and another try from Vernon Cooper, kept the Scarlets in with a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals. That chance was extinguished when European rugby resumed in January 2005, as a last-minute try from World Cup-winning England hooker Steve Thompson gave Northampton a 22–20 win. Although the Scarlets could finish second in their pool with victory over Toulouse the following week, their points total would not be enough to be one of the two best runners-up. Although the Scarlets scored five tries against Toulouse, including a double from Chris Wyatt, the French side scored eight of their own to win 53–36, confirming a third-place finish for the Scarlets.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2004-05 Llanelli Scarlets season Scarlets seasons

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...