Scarlets move on to 'serious stuff'
Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:16
Llanelli Scarlets head coach Nigel Davies commended his side's competitive edge in recent weeks, as has announced his squad for their Magners League curtain raiser against Ulster at Ravenhill on Friday.
With the game at Ulster quickly rushing up, Davies told a Stradey Park press conference that his starting XV knew that others were breathing down their necks.
"Training's been great. A lot of people have put their hands up for places and that's what we want," said Davies.
"Competition in the squad pushes everybody forward. If the team's not going well we have players who can come in and perform - and that's the level of competition we need here.
"The players who start on Friday night know there's a group directly behind them who are more than capable of coming in."
Davies was delighted with last week's friendly win against Wasps at Adams Park (which the Scarlets won 20-17), and hopes to build on his team's positive performance.
"That game [against the Wasps] was very pleasing. It was the end of our pre-season period and the start of the transition into our competitive phase.
"It told us a lot and we're pleased with what we've achieved so far; you don't go to Wasps and get a result without physically matching them - and that's what we did.
"But now we move onto the serious stuff. We haven't achieved anything yet so we've got to build on the Wasps performance and take some of the lessons and work that we did there into a competitive game.
"Ulster should be an interesting encounter because they've got home advantage and will be looking to start with a bang but we've been working hard to put a game together with a new group of coaches and some new players," Davies added.
Llanelli Scarlets: 15 Morgan Stoddard, 14 Darren Daniel, 13 Rob Higgitt, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Mark Jones, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Sililo Martens, 8 David Lyons, 7 Gavin
Thomas, 6 Simon Easterby (captain), 5 Simon Maling, 4 Lou Reed, 3 Kees Meeuws, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Iestyn Thomas.
Replacements - from: 16 Deacon Manu, 17 Mahonri Schwalger, 18 Vernon Cooper, 19 Dafydd Jones, 20 Martin Roberts, 21 Ceiron Thomas, 22 Nathan Brew, 23 Daniel Evans, 24 Scott MacLeod.
Date: Friday, September 5
Venue: Ravenhill, Belfast
Kick-off: 19.30 (18.30 GMT)
Referee: Peter Allan (Scotland)
Touch judges: David Keane (Ireland), Peter Haycock (Ireland)
With thanks to scarlets.co.uk
