The Scarlets have a number of international players back in the fold during the gap week in the 6 Nations. As they are playing runaway league leaders Leinster this could prove vital. With every point important as they chase that all important 4th spot, the Scarlets now just how big this game is going to be.
Which is why they welcome back players such as Liam Williams, Stephen Jones and Scott Williams with open arms. Whilst they all start, the selection of Ben Morgan on the bench has raised some eyebrows. It is an open secret that the newly declared Englishman is leaving the Scarlets next season, so building replacements from their promising youngsters is important – but in such a hard match surely they want their best players on the park?
But Morgan joins the likes of Liam Davies and Phil John on the bench.
Leinster Team vs the Scarlets
15: Isa Nacewa, 14: David Kearney, 13: Eoin O’Malley, 12: Fergus McFadden, 11: Fionn Carr, 10: Ian Madigan, 9: Eoin Reddan
1: Jack McGrath, 2: Sean Cronin, 3: Jamie Hagan, 4: Damian Browne, 5: Devin Toner, 6: Kevin McLaughlin CAPTAIN, 7: Shane Jennings, 8: Rhys Ruddock
REPLACEMENTS:
16: Richardt Strauss, 17: Heinke van der Merwe, 18: Nathan White, 19: Leo Auva’a, 20: Dominic Ryan, 21: Isaac Boss, 22: Noel Reid, 23: Brendan Macken
Scarlets Team vs Leinster
Scarlets team to play Leinster Friday 17th February 2012 kick off 7.35, RDS: 15 Dan Newton, 14 Liam Williams, 13 Gareth Maule ©, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Andy Fenby, 10 Stephen Jones, 1 Rhodri Jones, 2 Emyr Phillips, 3 Deacon Manu, 4 Sione Timani, 5 Dominic Day, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 Johnathan Edwards, 8 Kieran Murphy
Replacements: 16 Craig Hawkins, 17 Phil John, 18 Peter Edwards, 19 Damian Welch, 20 Ben Morgan, 21 Liam Davies, 22 Adam Warren, 23 Viliame Iongi.
Coach Nigel Davies insists that they are going for the win
We’re going to the RDS with every intent to win the game and having the opportunity to welcome back a few fresh faces will give us a boost.
“We know we have a lot of work to do from here on in. We’ve dropped off the standard a little bit and we’ve been disappointed in the last two performances against Sale and Glasgow.
“We’ve been very hard on ourselves this week but in saying that we are competitive in every aspect in the majority of our games and we just need to ensure that we get back to where we know we can be now on Friday evening.”
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