SCARLETS head coach Nigel Davies has insisted his squad has enough strength in depth to extend their eight-game unbeaten run against Ulster at Ravenhill tonight.
Victory for the West Walians in Belfast could see them keep the pressure on Cardiff Blues, who are directly above them, and Davies is confident they have enough quality to pick up an away win despite having lost several key names to international duty.
“It’s a big game for us, we are on a good run and we want to protect that run,” said Davies.
“We know it is never an easy place to go but in the past we have always been very competitive out there.
“The ref will probably have a big bearing on the game out there but our boys are playing with a lot of confidence at the moment.
“Sometimes you have to be able to win ugly and we did that against the Dragons.
“These boys we have are coming through strongly so we can get a result out there.”
Davies praised the contribution of the wider squad during a period that has seen widespread disruption because of international absenteeism.
“Our World Cup players add spice and x-factor and raise the bar in terms of performance and training – but a lot of the hard work has been done week-in, week-out by the wider group of Scarlets that we have invested in and developed and credit should go to them,” he added.
“We have a lot of young players coming through who have learnt on their feet and are starting to make big in-roads for us.
“We’ve got a heavy and intense period of rugby ahead of us, with the back-to-backs in Europe then a derby against the Ospreys on Boxing Day, so we are managing our squad too for the period ahead.”
Defence coach Simon Easterby received praise from Davies for the work he has done making the side a tighter unit when they are not in possession.
He added: “One of the positives for us this season has been our game without the ball which has gone up a couple of notches and Simon Easterby, our defence coach has done some superb work for us.
“We are now scoring from turnovers, seen last weekend and against Northampton.
“We know we can play rugby as well as any side when the time and occasion is right but we equally are becoming more pragmatic about how we approach our games and our kicking game has been good the last couple of performances too.
“We know Ulster will be strong and need a big performance, our results against them last season had a big bearing on us missing out on a final four spot so we must take the game to them. It should be a good contest.”
New Tongan wing signing Viliami Iongi,[url=http://www.moncler-online.de/][b]title=Moncler Store[/b][/url], who landed in Llanelli last week from Auckland, gets a start on the wing.
Ulster: A D’Arcy; A Trimble, D Cave, N Spence, C Gilroy; I Humphreys, P Marshall; T Court, R Best, J Afoa; J Muller (capt), D Tuohy; S Ferris, C Henry, P Wannenburg.Replacements: N Brady, P McAllister, A Macklin, L Stevenson, R Diack, R Pienaar, P Jackson, I Whitten
Scarlets: D Evans; V Iongi, N Reynolds, A Warren,[url=http://www.style-jackets.com][b]title=Moncler Outlet[/b][/url], S Lamont; S Jones (c), G Davies; P John, K Owens, D Manu; L Reed, A Powell; M Gilbert, R McCusker, K Murphy.Replacements: E Phillips, I Thomas, S Gardiner, D Welch, J Edwards, R Williams, D Newton, I Evans
Related articles：
没有评论:
发表评论