Connacht v Scarlets - Friday 15th September KO 18.30

Connacht v Scarlets - Friday 15th September KO 18.30

Blimey this is a hard one to call, Conn are on fire at the moment and deserve their high placing in the Magners League. Scarlets on the other hand are coming off the back of a bruising encounter with the Gwent Dragons.

There’s no doubt about it, this is going to be another closely contested and hard fought game, whether Scarlets will be up for another one so soon after the Dragons game has yet to be seen but I like some of the changes they have made to their squad with a few players returning to their favoured positions. Conn are to be congratulated on their win against the Sprays last week but as seen on Wednesday, the Sprays are in utter dire form. Conn certainly won’t be facing a team of pretty boys with no warm up games under their belts.

Preview:
For the second game running the Scarlets have named a side showing five changes to the previous starting line-up.

There are also two positional changes with captain Simon Easterby moving to the openside to allow James Bater a start on the blindside while Matthew Watkins moves back to his preferred position of centre as Dafydd James returns to the left wing.

Elsewhere, Clive Stuart-Smith gets a run-out at scrum-half and Darren Daniel at fly-half while Phil John replaces Iestyn Thomas at loose-head prop and Adam Jones takes over from Lou Reed in the second row.

Nathan Thomas comes in for Alix Popham at number eight.
There's also a welcome return to Wales winger Mark Jones on the bench.
"We are aware of the challenge we face against Connacht," said Scarlets Director of Rugby Phil Davies. "They beat the Ospreys last weekend and have won two from two so are obviously in top form. We have great respect for them. They are the type of side who never give up."
Meanwhile, Connacht have unsurprisingly announced the same starting side which defeated the Ospreys last week.

There is one change on the bench though, with centre John Hearty coming into the side in place of Darren Yapp, who was troubled during the week by a leg injury.
Coach Michael Bradley is hoping that the Connacht fans can reproduce the atmosphere in which the Ospreys fell to defeat last week.
"The quality of the Connacht support has always been excellent, what we need is more of them to increase the volume," said Bradley.

"It was superb on Friday night the way the supporters got right behind the side, especially in the second-half when the game was hanging in the balance.
"That backing has to be worth a score or two. Let's hope we can build on the Friday night experience and the fan base will continue to grow in the coming weeks."

Form:

Connacht have made the perfect start to the new season with back to back wins against the Reivers and the Ospreys. Added to this the Galwaymen also won the last game of the 2005-06 season against Glasgow, with this current run representing the best winning sequence Connacht have achieved in the league since 2002/03. Llanelli Scarlets won their second match in four days at Newport last night and are going for three wins in a row in the competition for the first time since the turn of the year. The Scarlets have not won in Ireland since an 18-11 victory against Connacht at Athlone in February 2005. The Scarlets have the slight edge in previous league meetings between the two, gaining three wins to Connacht’s two with one match drawn.

Recommendation:

VC Bet, in our opinion are offering a very generous 6 points to the Scarlets. 10Pts Bet.