Healthy competition driving squad on at Scarlets

Scarlets secured a 26 all draw against Bath Rugby at the Rec on Saturday 16th August in the first friendly of the pre-season with the West Wales region fielding two sides in the Rag Doll fixture.

In what was a first game in charge for new Head Coach Wayne Pivac it was an opportunity to see the wider squad in action after an intense pre-season training period.

First half captain Rob McCusker took advantage of a quick tap and go penalty and got the Scarlets’ first points of the afternoon just on the stroke of half time.

McCusker said: “I just had to run it in really! We tried a couple of patterns we’ve been working on and it was good to see them bear some fruit after weeks of practicing.

“We’ve always been comfortable in attack, that’s the way we play; switching from attack to defence is what we’ve been working on and tweaking a few things in defence. We run moves against each other in training but you know what’s coming so it was good to get a hit out, it gave us a chance to put things together.”

Scarlets will take on Gloucester at Parc y Scarlets on Saturday 30th August ahead of the first competitive game of the Guinness PRO12 season against Ulster and McCusker is fully aware of the work that lies ahead, he went on to say; “We know that we’re all on trial here. We don’t just want to win our game we want to win our places for the season. There’s no chance of the boys switching off because we want to be involved from Ulster onwards.

“We’ve got a good mix of carriers and ball players and line out forwards which makes it difficult now. I’m worried, we’re all worried – nothing’s guaranteed and it’s driving us forward and it can only be good for the team.”