Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac was proud of his men’s heroic effort, even if it ended in their exit from the European Rugby Champions Cup.

The Welsh region looked to have sealed a famous victory and kept their quarter-final hopes alive after Scott Williams’ try added to 17 points from the boot of Wales Under-20 outside-half Dan Jones. But Chris Ashton scored the second of his two tries after the clock had ticked past 80 minutes to rescue a draw and send the Scarlets crashing out of the Champions Cup.

But Pivac was proud of his troops, who ran the European champions close after toppling three-time winners RC Toulon in Round 4.

He said: “It was a disappointing result so the dressing room is a very sombre one. It’s one that got away. We’re very disappointed because we put in a really good effort and did enough to win the game. In the 80th minute we were 22-15 up but it’s until the final whistle goes.

“We’re certainly proud of the performance because it was a massive effort and the players deserve credit for the way they played.

“It’s a pretty tough pool but certainly to beat Toulon and to have this game run so close and end up with a draw shows we’ve made a lot of improvements. We’ve still got to keep improving.”

The PRO12 with have at least two teams in the final eight after Munster and Leinster qualified. Connacht, Glasgow and Ulster could also still reach the quarter-finals. And Pivac reckons the gap is closing between them and the Anglo-French giants of European rugby.

He said: “We’re seeing that gap is closing, aren’t we? There are a lot of good performances from the PRO12 sides and we put our hands up as well. It’s good to see that gap appears to be closing.”

“We’re still a point away from the top four in the PRO12 so that’s obviously a big goal for us, to make the play-offs. The hardest thing for us is getting into those play-offs. If we can get there, on our day, we can compete with most sides.”