“Thank you,” he told the cheering fans. “I’ve grown up here, come through the ranks and apart from four years with Wigan and Richmon, I’ve been lucky enough to spend my career here.”
Quinnell added: “I wanted to play again but I would need a soft cast on the hand, which wouldn’t be allowed in a competitive game. I’ve been lucky with what I have had and achieved in rugby, and you have to be thankful for that.”
Quinnell earned his legend status on the back of 52 Tests for Wales, two British Lions tours (1997 and 2001) and successful rugby league stints with Wigan and Great Britain. He made his debut for Llanelli as an 18-year-old in 1990, and finished with 178 appearances for the club. Scarlets coach Gareth Jenkins paid tribute to Quinnell’s “fantastic rugby career”.
“His record speaks for itself and he deserves all the recognition he gets,” Jenkins said. “He has been a fantastic ambassador – both on and off the field – for the Scarlets. He is a great player who will go down in our Hall of Fame as one of the greats of all time.”
The Scarlets players were a bit slow in honouring the big backrower on Saturday night, conceding two early penalty goals to Glasgow fly-half Dan Parks – both from his side of halfway – and allowing backrower Steve Swindall to power over under the posts. Scarlets’ fly-half Gareth Bowen pegged back three points before winger Aisea Havili dotted down in the corner after a clever pass from Chris Wyatt. Havili’s wing-mate Tal Selley followed him on to the scoresheet as Lions certainty Dwayne Peel drew the final defender to give Selley a straight sprint to the line.
It was a night for the speedsters, with Glasgow winger Rory Lamont scoring a simple try before being out-shone by brother Sean, who plucked a stray Scarlets pass out of the air two yards from his line and ran the length of the field. Lock Vernon Cooper – playing his 250th game for the Scarlets – was driven over in the final play of the first half to limit the damage to 18-28 at the break. The Scarlets began the second half as they started the first, standing aside to allow Rory Lamont in for his second try.
The Scarlets said goodbye to victory and hello to embarrassment when Sean Lamont scored another long-range try, and things began to get ridiculous when scrum-half Sam Pinder started and finished a 90-metre move to get Glasgow to 50 points. Scarlets fullback Barry Davies and Havili scored consolation tries, but there was still time for Rory Lamont to rub salt in the wounds by completing his hat-trick.
Scarlets:
Tries – A Havili 2, T Selley, V Cooper, B Davies
Pen – G Bowen
Con – G Bowen
Glasgow:
Tries – S Swindall, R Lamont 3, S Lamont 2, S Pinder
Pens – D Parks 4
Cons – D Parks 5
Halftime: Glasgow 28-18
Referee: Simon McDowell (Ireland)
