Scarlets energised and ready to face European challenge head on

The return of the Heineken Cup campaign this weekend sees the Scarlets travel to the French capital to take on big spending Racing Metro.

Currently third in pool 4 the Scarlets have it all to play for as the Heineken Cup returns for the business end of the pool stages with a huge round six clash at Parc y Scarlets against Harlequins to look forward to on Sunday 19th January, kick-off 3pm.

Whilst the Scarlets take on Racing Metro at their Stade Yves-du-Manoir home Harlequins will welcome Clermont Auvergne to the Stoop on Saturday afternoon looking for a victory to take them top of the group.

The Scarlets still have it all to play for with only five points separating the West Wales region and second places Quins and nine points behind table toppers Clermont Auvergne.

Looking ahead to the return of the Heineken Cup this weekend Scarlets Head Coach Simon Easterby said: “We have plenty of quality in the ranks and it’s important that we get some results under our belts. There’s no better place to start that than in Paris this weekend.

“We want to put the type of performance in that will get some momentum back. There’ll be players leaving us after round six as they head back into camp and we need to make sure that those players leave us in good spirits feeling that they have contributed to getting some momentum back into our season.

“Despite disappointing results, after putting in big challenges against Munster and Ospreys in recent weeks, the scrum has brought us rewards. We’ve adapted really well to the scrum laws and Danny’s done really well in delivering and implementing things in that area. We have to make sure that we stay on top of that and match the superiority of other packs.

“We’ve probably made things hard on ourselves with back to back losses to Clermont but this group of players needs to feel that the hard work they’ve been putting in is paying dividends.

“We’ll be energised as a group going back into the Heineken Cup this week and we’ve already shown this season that we can create things in broken play. Ultimately a lot of the things we’re not doing or not getting right is within our control and we’ll be looking to put that right on Friday evening.”

Veteran Scarlets prop Phil John has put in big performances in recent months and said that there’s no bigger test than the big French teams in the European challenge: “We’ve lost very narrowly in the last few games but there’s no greater place to go this weekend and put in a performance.

“We will look at the positives from recent performances in training this week. It’s a big challenge for us against one of the big French sides in the European Cup but it’s a great challenge for us to face head on after the disappointment of the last few results.”