Teams For Leinster V Scarlets

Leinster

Isa Nacewa
Niall Morris
Eoin O'Malley
Fergus McFadden
Dave Kearney
Jonathan Sexton
Isaac Boss

Heinke van der Merwe
Richardt Strauss
Stan Wright
Leo Cullen
Devin Toner
Kevin McLaughlin
Dominic Ryan
Rhys Ruddock

Bench - Harris-Wright, McGrath, Shawe, Hines, Ryan, O'Donohoe, Madigan, Riordan



Scarlets

Dan Newton
George North
Regan King
Gareth Maule
Joe Ajuwa
Rhys Priestland
Tavis Knoyle

Iestyn Thomas
Rhys Lawrence
Rhys Thomas
Lou Reed
Aaron Shingler
Rob McCusker
Josh Turnbull
Ben Morgan

Bench - Myhill, R Jones, Gardener, Welch, J Edwards, G Davies, D Evans, Reynolds

I must be honest i am feeling more confident about this match as time goes on. The only down side is Mr McPhearson is the official for the match.

SS do you feel that the Ulster loss will now come back to haunt you?

I know i'm not SS but...that Ulster loss will always come back to haunt us. Turning point of our season and I honestly think it's cost us our play off spot. We just don't have any leaders/experienced players without our internationals to help us close out matches and make the right decisions.

It's a shame and hugely frustrating as a fan to watch, but we aren't quite there yet. This is a huge improvement for us from last season but we need to win all our games now till the end of the season. The Dragons are in good form, they have 2 games in hand and about 5 games at home to go. They could catch us if we slip up again....getting a bit nervous about them to be honest!

RD don't be too nervous, the dragons COULD have gone all out for the playoffs in the munster game, but chose to pick weakened team, concentrating on the LV= instead.
If that's where their priorities lie then the Magners will not be their target.
I'm saying that to me, the blues and ulster are the biggest obstacles in your way.
Good luck to you all for the season.

Cheers Ospreylian. Tis going to be tough for us to get ahead of the Blues and Ulster now as they both have games in hand over us. The last match of the season between Scarlets and Blues is going to be a huge one!

We just have to make sure we win our games now, and hope other results go our way.

Sorry been away on a course with work so couldn't post.

I think that the loss against Ulster (and now this loss too) have certainly ended any hopes we had for the play off spots, however with games to go against Munster and the Blues at home, and Ulster away we certainly can have a hand in shaping up who goes through, and in what order.

Its funny to think that we are really gutted after losing to Leinster away by 11 points (and missing 11 with the boot), when a season ago we were getting slammed by 50+ out there.

Hiya SS
Wondered where you'd got to, hope the course was worthwhile.

Look, the scarlets, through adversity have discovered that the only way forward is by building from within.
The Ospreys and the Blues have been doing so since inception, but have preferred to do it slower, strange that now the purse strings have tightened, both teams are suddenly bringing the youngsters on.
The only exception to this "rule" has to date been the Dragons, and they seem to have taken on the mantle of the underdog and the "hard done to".
For myself i would be more than happy to see the Ospreys ditch the "brand name" players both Welsh and foreign and go full steam ahead for both welsh and young.

It's not going to happen, and the bonus for me is that because of my age (dont ask) I remain more likely to see Heineken success as a result.

Word out of the Liberty is that Collins like Holah is OUT, leaving space for two NWQ's.

To be honest the Scarlets (and Llanelli RFC) used to do pretty well with their home grown talent, mixed in with under-rated or unknown talent from else where (Gilies, Gross etc), but seemed to lose track of that somewhat over the past few years with a high turn over of over-paid and over-rated players.

I agree that the regions do seem to be better off sticking to developing a proper structure to bring the younger genreation through, and hopefully within the next few years they will also develope a structure of maintaining the talent that they nurtured.

I honestly don't think that the Ospreys have too much to worry about with the player exits. Whilst yes it does appear that there is something of a mass exodus going on at the Liberty, the fact of the matter is they have plenty of quality welsh qualified youngsters who are capable of making hte step up. And to be fair a number of them have a fair few appearances already too.