Barclay, Parkes and Williams released for Guinness PRO14 clash

Nov 2 • General News • 1820 Views • Comments Off on Barclay, Parkes and Williams released for Guinness PRO14 clash

Scarlets will take on Benetton Rugby at Parc y Scarlets on Friday evening in the final Guinness PRO14 clash before Anglo-Welsh Cup and Autumn International action gets underway.

Head Coach Wayne Pivac can call on the services of centres Scott Williams and Hadleigh Parkes and backrower John Barclay, all released from their international camps for the championship clash at the Parc on Friday.

Williams will captain the side as the Scarlets look to secure their seventh victory in the Guinness PRO14 to keep them atop of Conference B with the championship taking a fortnight’s break after round eight’s completion.

Barclay will make his first appearance in Scarlets colours since suffering a concussion against Edinburgh at the end of September. Barclay’s return sees Tadhg Beirne move to blindside flank with Will Boyde on the openside. Lewis Rawlins and David Bulbring partner up in the second row with Dylan Evans, Ryan Elias and Werner Kruger packing down in the front row.

Johnny Mcnicholl moves to fullback with Paul Asquith coming in on the wing. Winger Tom Prydie, outside half Dan Jones and scrum half Jonathan Evans will make their first competitive starts for the region.

Looking ahead to the challenge head coach Wayne Pivac said; “It’s probably our biggest test since we took over as a coaching group.

“It’s exciting. We’ve talked about how well we’ve gone in the last few years during the international windows and this is the biggest test for that particular group of people.

“We want to put on a good display as a team so everybody can hopefully enjoy the success and enjoy what has been a proud run at home in this competition.

“Having said that we’re expecting a big challenge. It’s a home game, we see all home games as a must win for us and if they come over fully loaded we’ll be very happy to come out of it with a win. It’s definitely a target of ours to get four points.”

Scarlets team to take on Benetton Rugby at Parc y Scarlets on Friday 3rd November, kick-off 7.35pm;

15 Johnny Mcnicholl, 14 Tom Prydie, 13 Hadleigh Parkes, 12 Scott Williams ©, 11 Paul Asquith, 10 Dan Jones, 9 Jonathan Evans, 1 Dylan Evans, 2 Ryan Elias, 3 Werner Kruger, 4 Lewis Rawlins, 5 David Bulbring, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 7 Will Boyde, 8 John Barclay

Replacements; Taylor Davies, Rhys Fawcett, Simon Gardiner, Tom Price, Josh Macleod, Declan Smith, Rhys Jones, Steff Hughes