BRAVE SCARLETS ARE ALL HEART AS THEY BURY GHOSTS AT MURRAYFIELD

The winter weather looked to play its part again in disrupting another Magners League fixture, with a snow covered Edinburgh forcing the closure of its airport early on Saturday.

But the icy weather was not going to cool the Scarlets hearts and they came up to Murrayfield fired up and determined to turn up the heat amongst the Welsh regions in the top half of the Magners League table.

After ringing the changes in their preparations for Edinburgh, including flying up and back in a day for their visit to Murrayfield on Saturday, the Scarlets showed their determination to maintain momentum in the Magners League with a hard-fought victory over a strong Scottish side.

The Scarlets now sit in second place in the Magners League on 40 points after their 21 -16 win at Murrayfield and with it the satisfaction of securing their first away win against Edinburgh for seven years.

Centre Jon Davies showed eye-catching form on his recent return from injury to secure man of the match. He produced his seventh this season for the Scarlets and the strength, pace and poise to set-up space for Morgan Stoddart’s sensational try just minutes after the start of the second half.

Rhys Priestland secured 11 points with three well-struck penalties and one conversion to add to his Magners League tally taking the talented 24-year-old up to 126 points this season.  It was an added birthday present for the Scarlets fly-half, who celebrated his birthday yesterday (Friday) as kicked with composure to keep the Scarlets in the game and individually secured a top three position in the Magners League top point scorers.

And Scarlets and Wales supporters will be pleased to see 95-cap outside half Stephen Jones return comfortably to the field after six weeks off with a knee ligament injury – as the Scarlets look to their next game against Premiership and European giants Leicester Tigers at Parc y Scarlets on Saturday 15^th January 2010.

Scarlets Head Coach Nigel Davies said:  “This was a very important game in the context of our season and our position in the Magners League as we look to keep our sights on a top four place.  I told the boys earlier in the week, that if we want to really compete and be serious about getting anything from this league we have to win games like this and I’m pleased to see the team had the belief to ignore past form and come up here with the spirit to win.

“We’ve worked hard all week on our game without the ball, with particularly focus on the contact area and it was good to see how much progress we’ve made in this area from this game.

“We know we have a lot to do against Leicester in the Heineken Cup next weekend at home but after that performance tonight, we can be positive about many areas of our game.  We stepped up a couple of notches and that was pleasing to see.  It was fantastic to win up here after a such long spell, that takes some belief and to do it ahead of next weekend in Europe is a plus for us.  The boys played well tonight and we’ll need to do the same and more against Leicester.”

Scarlets captain Matthew Rees said: “That was a big win for us, it’s a huge result looking ahead to Leicester and we haven’t won here for seven years.

“It’s always good to prepare for your next game on the back of a win, and the next fortnight could not be bigger for us.  I’m pleased with the spirit of the team tonight – you can’t fault the effort or the commitment of the forwards tonight.

“We’ll look forward to the challenge next weekend, we’re on our own patch and that win will give us some momentum.”

The Scarlets have now added to their good away form this season with six wins on the road this season against Edinburgh, Treviso, London Irish, Cardiff Blues, Newport Gwent Dragons and Aironi. The Scarlets have won six of their last seven matches in all competitions.

The Scarlets now look forward to one of the top-billing European fixtures of next weekend as they challenge Leicester Tigers on home soil at Parc y Scarlets. A big vocal Scarlets home crowd is expected next Saturday as well as a large travelling support from Leicester as the Welsh region and European giants revisit their great history and rivalry.

The Tigers, finalists in two of the last four Heineken Cup seasons and winners in 2001 and 2002 have a great European pedigree and have met the Scarlets on six occasions in the Heineken Cup including the semi-finals in 2002 and 2007.