SCARLETS INTERNATIONAL STARS BACK FOR OPENING HOME GAME

Stephen Jones, Matthew Rees and Sean Lamont will all appear in the Scarlets starting line-up to herald the region’s first home game of the season at Parc y Scarlets this Saturday (kick-off 3pm) against Connacht in the Magners League.

 

The new season’s captain Wales and British Lions hooker Matthew Rees will lead a strong Scarlets outfit to the field at home on Saturday afternoon. It will be the first chance for the region’s record number of season ticket holders to see some of the stars as well as Scarlets new faces in action at their home ground.

And both the Scarlets Head Coach and captain have taken a strong line with the players this week – giving them plenty to think about after letting a win slip out of their grasp out in the dying minutes out in Italy.

With competition for places building in the Scarlets squad, there have been some tough selection decisions made ahead of the first home game but its been a battle that Head Coach Nigel Davies says is helping raise the bar in training.

“It’s a very competitive environment here at the moment, which is what we wanted. I made it clear that this week would be the first time we would be not preclude anyone from selection and would pick our starting XV from the entire squad,” said Davies.

“We planned to bring back some of our senior players for this first home game, after they have had full training and conditioning over the past four weeks and it’s been good to see the spark in the squad on the training field this week.

“First and foremost we have to win games and maybe in the past we’ve tried to win games playing pretty rugby but we don’t always need to do that – and if we were able to shut-up shop out in Italy we would have won that game.

“We weren’t able to do that last weekend – we have got to have a game that we can go to when there’s a change in momentum in matches.  There were just a couple of key moments when things swung Treviso’s way – but we didn’t take control back – we have to learn to adjust and get the right balance in our game to manage these shifts in momentum.”

This weekend’s team sees Martin Roberts wins the battle of the scrum-halves, Rhys Thomas returns at tighthead prop, David Lyons does not make the fitness race for Saturday and is replaced by last week’s captain Rob McCusker at No 8, and world-class fly-half Stephen Jones is back in the number 10 jersey with Andy Fenby moving from wing to full-back. Rhys Priestland is on the bench.

After a stunning brace of tries on his competitive debut last week in Italy, 18 year-old winger George North is rewarded with a place in a top ranking starting Scarlets XV, with Scottish international Sean Lamont, Wales international centre, Jon Davies and legendary All Blacks centre Regan King for company.

Nigel Davies said the first home game of the season should be a great occasion and expects a buzzing atmosphere.  And with a family-friendly kick-off of 3pm Saturday afternoon, the region hopes to see a good home crowd at Parc y Scarlets to back the team.

Davies said: “This is a very important game for us, we want to build momentum at the beginning of the season which is what we should have done last week – the difference between losing and a winning bonus point for us against Treviso was marginal and rested on a couple of key moments.”

But the Scarlets are taking nothing for granted despite a strong home record against Connacht – particularly as the visitors will be boosted and energised after their convincing victory over the Dragons last weekend.

Davies said: “Connacht are a good team, when you look what they did against the Dragons, they played very well. They are a very capable side.  But this season, we must look less at the opposition and more about ourselves, our game and what we can bring.   And we need to bring a strong defensive game and muscle-up more and that has been the focus for us this week after Treviso.

“This is our first home game of the season which is very important to us.  We want to show our supporters that we have progressed a lot from the last two seasons and our players are ready to front up.  The only way to actually do that is to win this game and win it well.  One of our aims is to make Parc y Scarlets ours, and that starts on Saturday.”

Scarlets starting XV against Connacht: Andy Fenby, George North, Regan King, Jon Davies, Sean Lamont, Stephen Jones, Martin Roberts, Phil John, Matthew Rees (capt), Rhys Thomas, Lou Reed, Jonny Fa’amatuainu, Josh Turnbull, Johnathan Edwards, Rob McCusker.

Replacements: Ken Owens, Iestyn Thomas, Peter Edwards, Dominic Day, Nic Cudd, Tavis Knoyle, Gareth Maule, Rhys Priestland.

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