Former international Barkley believes there’s plenty still to play for

Scarlets’ latest signing, 32 year old former international Olly Barkley is enjoying being back in the UK and believes his new club has it all still to play for in the RaboDirect PRO12.

Barkley, who has Welsh connections through his Newport-born mum, joined the Scarlets earlier this month and made his regional debut last weekend in the victory over Edinburgh at Parc y Scarlets.

With another game this weekend in front of a passionate home crowd Barkley says the Scarlets can build on last weekend’s performance and victory; “I don’t believe we’re out of the play-offs by any stretch.

“We can start to build scores, and not only build wins but also start climbing up the table.”

On this Saturday’s St David’s Day challenge against Munster (kick-off 6.30pm) Barkley went on to say; “Munster are aggressive and well-drilled. You always get the feeling when you play against them that they know exactly what they’re doing.

“They are the sort of team that we have to be very organised against or you can become unstuck pretty quickly. That’ll be our goal going into the game, to get as much out of this weekend as we possibly can.”

With English giants Bath and Gloucester amongst his former clubs the experienced back, who can play at centre as well as outside half, says that he’s thoroughly enjoying being back after a spell with Racing Metro and Grenoble in France.

“I am loving being back here and being part of a professional set-up. I [was impressed] with the facilities, the team and the coaches, who I heard very good things about from people I spoke to, and I have always enjoyed watching the Scarlets play when they throw the ball around and coming here was another challenge and another opportunity.”