“We can learn a lot from last season,” says captain Owens

Scarlets kick-start their 2016-17 GUINNESS PRO12 season at Parc y Scarlets against Munster Rugby this Saturday afternoon.

Speaking ahead of the season opener captain Ken Owens admitted that his side’s opening clash of the campaign is one of many tough challenges ahead.

“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of easy games or feeling your way into the league at all now. That’s how it is and getting big teams like this in early – I suppose they can make or break your season in the first month. That’s where we did well last season, we started very strongly, we are going to have to do that again this year.”

Owens will head up a side that includes a strong backline of international star quality players but will begin the season without his fellow Welsh front rowers in Rob Evans an Samson Lee.

He went on to say; “I think that’s been the challenge over the last couple of years, with most teams, to keep everybody fit and on the pitch at any one time.

“If we can get our strongest 23 involved in as many of the games during the season then we’ve got one of the strongest squads on paper in the competition.”

He went on to say that the Scarlets can learn a lot from last season having missed out on a play-off place; “We were in the top two / top four for the majority of the season but we missed out on bonus points as we didn’t score enough tries and I think we’re going to have to address that. I’m sure if the forwards can win enough possession we’ve got a backline that’s more than capable of producing tries for us.”