Leicester Tigers sent the Scarlets out of the competition on Friday night with 40-23 victory at Welford Road. And it will not get any easier for Wayne Pivac’s men, who welcome champions Toulon to Parc Y Scarlets on Saturday.
The French side are through to the last eight after eight-try 60-22 thumping of Ulster, but they will not get an easy ride in Llanelli, where the Scarlets have only lost once in Europe and the league since the the start of 2014.
Williams said: “We have got to hold our heads up because we can take a lot out of the competition and we want to finish with a bang.
“Toulon are coming to us next week and we want to finish the competition on a high and put a marker down for next season. You want to play against the best teams and that’s where you measure yourself.”
The Scarlets were without six senior internationals for the round five clash and lost Jordan Williams early on in Leicester. But the Wales centre reckons their young side will only get stronger from their Champions Cup experience.
“I thought we were in the game at half-time. In the first-half we gave away two soft penalties and they punished us. We played most of the rugby but we did not get enough points in the first-half,” said Williams.
“I was disappointed with the second-half but when we threw some ball we caused some damage. But we did not get enough ball from the set-piece in the key areas. We have spoken in the changing room just now. A lot of people had written us off before the competition and we showed we can play against these top teams.
“We had a lot of young players out there against Leicester and they would have learned a lot from the game. It’s about them gaining experience and they will only get better.”
