SCARLETS HEAD COACH Wayne Pivac is leaving nothing to chance by resting all of his frontline players ahead of next weekend’s Champions Cup showdown with Leinster.
The Welsh region have named a youthful side for tomorrow’s Guinness Pro14 trip to Edinburgh, with Pivac making 13 changes in total and wrapping 12 of his internationals up in cotton wool.
Scarlets enter the business end of the season in uncharted territory as they continue to compete on two fronts, and Pivac has more than one eye on Dublin by naming a weakened side for Murrayfield [KO 3.15pm].
Making a first appearance in the last four in Europe since 2007, Scarlets need one victory from their final two Pro14 regular season games to secure a home draw in the playoffs, with tomorrow’s visit to Edinburgh followed by a home fixture against Dragons.
With all that in mind, and the need to maintain freshness among his key players, Pivac has rotated his squad and given a number of younger players the chance to impress — but it could be bad news for Ulster.
The northern province face Ospreys at Kingspan Stadium tonight knowing a bonus-point victory would keep them in the hunt for a quarter-final spot, but an Edinburgh win tomorrow would severely dent Ulster’s hopes.
Steff Hughes captains a much-changed Scarlets XV which also includes veteran winger Tom Varndell and young backs Ioan Nicholas and Ryan Conbeer.
“For us it’s a real test of the squad depth at the moment,” Pivac said. “It’s unchartered waters for us but certainly something we’re not shying away from it. It was important that we got a result against Glasgow and our focus has been to control what we can control. Now we need to win one of the next two to secure a home quarter.
“We expect a very tough encounter. They have a very strong forward pack, their set piece is one of the best in the competition. They’re a good side. It’s one place that we haven’t done particularly well since I’ve been here and we know we’re going to be in for a big night.
“We’ve got a job to get through this week before we can start to look ahead and get excited for the Champions Cup semi-final next week. To be able to get to the playoffs of Europe and maintain a top three position in our Conference throughout the season has been a challenge but it’s been the goal of the side and to have done that we’re very pleased.”
Scarlets:
15. Rhys Jones
14. Tom Varndell
13. Ioan Nicholas
12. Steff Hughes (captain)
11. Ryan Conbeer
10. Dan Jones
9. Aled Davies
1. Dylan Evans
2. Ryan Elias
3. Werner Kruger
4. Steve Cummins
5. David Bulbring
6. Lewis Rawlins
7. Josh Macleod
8. Will Boyde
Replacements:
16. Taylor Davies
17. Phil Price
18. Simon Gardiner
19. Josh Helps
20. Shaun Evans
21. Jonathan Evans
22. Corey Baldwin
23. Tom Rogers.
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