Pro12: Scarlets v Zebre (Sat) TEAMS ANNOUNCED

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RABODIRECT PRO12: SCARLETS v ZEBRE
Venue: Parc y ScarletsDate: Saturday, 3 NovemberKick-off: 18:30 GMT
Coverage: Live on Y Clwb Rygbi on S4C; live score updates on BBC website; highlights on Scrum V, Sunday on BBC Two Wales from 17:25 GMT

Scarlets - 15 Morgan Stoddart, 14 Kristian Phillips, 13 Gareth Maule, 12 Gareth Owen, 11 Andy Fenby, 10 Aled Thomas, 9 Gareth Davies, 1 Phil John, 2 Kirby Myhill, 3 Deacon Manu, 4 George Earle, 5 Johan Snyman, 6 Tomás Vallejos,
7 Johnathan Edwards (capt), 8 Kieran Murphy
Replacements: 16 Craig Hawkins, 17 Shaun Hopkins, 18 Peter Edwards, 19 Sione Timani, 20 Craig Price, 21 Aled Davies, 22 Owen Williams, 23 Nick Reynolds

Zebre - 15. Trevisan 14. Odiete 13 Pratichetti 12 Halanghau 11 Pace 10 Buso 9 Tebaldi 8 Van Schalkwyk 7 Cristiano 6 Ferrarini 5 Cazzola 4 Sole 3 Redolfini 2 Manici 1 Aguero
Subs
De Marchi, Leibson, Fazzari, Caffini, Belardo, Chiesa, Sarto, Benettin .

The Scarlets host Italian side Zebre on their first visit to Parc y Scarlets for Saturday night's RaboDirect PRO12 which the league approaching its half-way stage.
The Scarlets come into the game on the back of a five point bonus win in Murrayfield last weekend against Edinburgh and sit in second on 25 points - one point short of unbeaten Ulster who have a game in hand.
The Scarlets have only lost two games in their campaign to date and with four tries under their belt last weekend are keen to keep their hold on their top two place before they break for LV=Cup action next week.

Five Italian teams have visited Parc y Scarlets and all have lost with only Treviso attaining a losing bonus point during a 16-22 defeat on 27 March 2011.

Zebre have yet to record a victory in the RaboDirect PRO12 but after holding out Munster to a draw by half-time last week, the Scarlets will not taking anything for granted at their home ground on Saturday night (kick off 6.30pm).

With 12 of the Scarlets squad now on duty with Wales ahead of the autumn internationals, the home game is a chance for the West Wales region to hand starting-place opportunities to a number of their younger developing players and wider squad members.

Former Ospreys duo Kristian Phillips and Gareth Owen get starts in the side to face Zebre with Owen partnering up with Gareth Maule in the centre. Phillips replaces the absent George North on the right wing with Andy Fenby, who has notched up five tries in six appearances this season returning to the field after a fortnight out with injury. Morgan Stoddart moves to full-back.

In the pack, hooker Kirby Myhill returns from a injury with South African second row pairing George Earle and Joe Snyman back to the field after a week's absence and Argentinean international Tomás Vallejosmoves to the back row alongside Johnathan Edwards who takes over as Scarlets skipper with Rob McCusker on international duty and Kieran Murphy comes in at number eight.

Scarlets Attack Coach Mark Jones said: "We spoke after our disappointment in Europe about maintaining our momentum in the league and the boys fronted up well, there were a lot of pleasing things in the game and overall to come away from Murrayfield with five points is a good day in the office.

"However, with the points we had on the board and try count against Edinburgh last weekend, we had liked a lot less pressure in the last six minutes of that game; it was way too uncomfortable based on what we had scored and our ill-disciplined and penalty count allowed them to stay in the hunt."

Jones said that despite being the Welsh region with the most players now away on international duty, he believed that the depth in the squad would show itself in the next run of games both in the league and LV=Cup competition.

He said: "As we saw last season, we have plenty of talent and ambitious players here to bolster us during the period and do well when our internationals are away. We are very fortunate that the group here very often drive things even harder as a result. It's great to work with these guys as they put everything into their performances and training and see it as their opportunity to come into the team and make an impact.

"It's now their fight for a spot in the next European rounds and hopefully that will give the coaching team a headache or two."

Jones added that after a close finish in Edinburgh, there was no complacency in the Parc y Scarlets camp this week. He said: "Zebre can bring a very competitive game and can be very aggressive - they are a big tackling side and it showed against Munster that they can stay in games.

"We're associated with plenty of width in our game and will keep our attack versatile, but we have to create the space to play in and exploit those areas - so there's plenty we have to bring to our game on Saturday evening. We look forward to seeing a number of new combinations on the field in the starting line up and boys who are handed opportunities in a key game for us in our league ambitions."

Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU)

Assistant referees: Greg Morgan, Alan Jenkins (both WRU)

Citing commissioner: Richard Gwynn (WRU)

TMO: Tony Rowlands (WRU)

Pretty poor to hear the Scarlets supporters booing the Zebre kicker...

IanBru wrote:Pretty poor to hear the Scarlets supporters booing the Zebre kicker...

Give it a rest. If you wanna whinge about booing kickers go back to the old 606 and do it.

No, I don't think I will.

Why the hell are the Scarlets trying to do it as individuals, the ball is hardly going across the line and when they do there are miss passes losing the overlap, clueless.

IRN bru: Scottish teams never do it. I agree with you we should be ashamed (pidyn)

Good, so carry on and your 'moaning Scots' tag will be making it's way to V2.

Lee Byrne

You can tell Owen played for the Ospreys he does not pass the dam ball to keep the move going.

Is a Scarlets fan in charge of updating the "Live Scores" page on the Beeb?

They have Zebre down as scoring a converted try and 2 penalties but are only allowing them 6 points none the less!

Scarlets deserve to lose this game but I suspect they will get a penaltyy to win it.

Morg: that's a bit sick, don't you know he injured Evans on purpose and tucked the Scots centres face in mid air on purpose =D

I don't want to make a big thing of it (God knows it's been done to death elsewhere!) - I just think it's bad form when any crowd boos the kicker. It's done purely with the intention to distract, and I think we should all aspire to be better than that.

For the record, Scottish crowds do boo the kicker on occasion, and it makes me bl00dy furious.

What a lucky try from a cr"p kick, well taken by Phillips and a great kick from Thomas, lucky Preistland is not playing.

Anyone just notice the zebre hooked give myhill a clip as Phillips went in. Myhill turned around and give him one back

Someone might wanna tell the zebre players that your suppoesed to catch the ball when its kicked in the air.

Kicking from scrum halves in Wales is terrible

This hasn't exactly been a good advert for the Pro12.

I know there are 12 players away with Wales and there are some injuries, but that was poor.

Hopefully Zebre will get confidence from this game and get their first win soon.

Is Tebaldi in the Italian squad? He looks a good little player.

God what a rubbish weekend for Welsh rugby again, no wonder the crowds are going down there are better games in the premiership.

Don't think there are better games, but definitely more tries.

Ianbru - id say the booing was more to do with the kicker deliberately wasting time

LeinsterFan4life wrote:Hopefully Zebre will get confidence from this game and get their first win soon.

Not too soon though. Please!!!

Looking at this game I can't see the Italian side being any higher than mid table in the premier league.

glamorganalun wrote:God what a rubbish weekend for Welsh rugby again, no wonder the crowds are going down there are better games in the premiership.

Scarlets couldnt even half fill the stadium against Leinster in the HC. So I doubt it has anything to do with the quality of games.

V poor skills on display,we lookd clueless in attack and offered little variety - this coupled with our inability to stop knocking the ball on meant we never looked like scoring - just luck the ball got knockd to phillips

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

glamorganalun wrote:God what a rubbish weekend for Welsh rugby again, no wonder the crowds are going down there are better games in the premiership.

Scarlets couldnt even half fill the stadium against Leinster in the HC. So I doubt it has anything to do with the quality of games.

Clarity will be restored when the O's put 50 on Leinster tomorrow.

Smirnoffpriest wrote:Ianbru - id say the booing was more to do with the kicker deliberately wasting time

Hmm... fair enough, I suppose.

I find it hard to believe that a team 2nd in the Pro12 (even with players missing) could put in a performance like that.

Still a win is a win take it & move on thankful that you were only playing Zebre.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

well I've watched 2 dreadful performances by 2 welsh regions so far this weekend. Blues and Scarlets. Depressingly the 2 shining lights for both teams to my mind were both no 8's and they were both irish! Copeland and Murphy to be precise. When did the irish nick our conveyor belt?? Both look really promising.............gits

tatterd wrote:well I've watched 2 dreadful performances by 2 welsh regions so far this weekend. Blues and Scarlets. Depressingly the 2 shining lights for both teams to my mind were both no 8's and they were both irish! Copeland and Murphy to be precise. When did the irish nick our conveyor belt?? Both look really promising.............gits

Is Murphy Irish? Copeland looks good but remember he did miss that tackle that gave Munster one of their trys.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:I find it hard to believe that a team 2nd in the Pro12 (even with players missing) could put in a performance like that.

Still a win is a win take it & move on thankful that you were only playing Zebre.

Not just a few players missing, it was pretty much a team full team (12 players) missing. It seems logical to me that in any league a team's 2nd team would not automatically be expected to smash another team's 1st team. If Leicester had 12 players missing and they played a Worcester 1st team, for example, would they be expected to annihilate them? Or would a win be viewed as OK.

tatterd wrote:well I've watched 2 dreadful performances by 2 welsh regions so far this weekend. Blues and Scarlets. Depressingly the 2 shining lights for both teams to my mind were both no 8's and they were both irish! Copeland and Murphy to be precise. When did the irish nick our conveyor belt?? Both look really promising.............gits

Murphy is Scottish by birth but moved to Wales at 2. Surely you're not trying to claim him just on the name??? Nice try at a WUM though.

Pretty sure Murphy is Welsh.

SubsBench wrote:Pretty sure Murphy is Welsh.

Yeah, on 22 years residency. But born in Aberdeen and moved to Swansea at 2.

wasn't a wum griff. just saw the name and assumed! come on its a pretty irish name! but if he's wq i'm delighted. as i am welsh. you tool.

Griff wrote:

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:I find it hard to believe that a team 2nd in the Pro12 (even with players missing) could put in a performance like that.

Still a win is a win take it & move on thankful that you were only playing Zebre.

Not just a few players missing, it was pretty much a team full team (12 players) missing. It seems logical to me that in any league a team's 2nd team would not automatically be expected to smash another team's 1st team. If Leicester had 12 players missing and they played a Worcester 1st team, for example, would they be expected to annihilate them? Or would a win be viewed as OK.

I understand all that & most sensible people wouldnt expect an anniliation but even a second team should have some basic skills it wasn't pretty to watch. As Easterby said after the game, ".......execution and accuracy, one or two out of 10; effort eight or nine out of 10...."

Additionally I think that Zebres team was missing a number of first choice players apparently.

tatterd wrote:wasn't a wum griff. just saw the name and assumed! come on its a pretty irish name! but if he's wq i'm delighted. as i am welsh. you tool.

Tool?! Lovely!

Deadful match, dreadful weather, dreadful, attendance, dreadful ref!

Zebre were allowed to slow the ball down at the rucks all night. The turnover that started off the move that lead to the Leinster try started with their no8 lying on the ball on the wrong side! The ref missed a lot in open play also and both sides profited from those mistakes.

Rugby is suposed to be a spectator sport, the laws at the scrum and ruck need simplifying because it is ruining the game as a spectacle.

PS
I could see why Ospreys released Phillips and Owen, both talented individuals but hardly team players, I dont recall either of them looking to create anything by passing the ball. At this level Phillips does not look particularly quick either!

I thought Phillips looked quite quick, but his handling, passing and ability to hold onto the ball in contact were poor - Owens seemed quite good but nothing spectacular and I didn't notice him kick the ball once - when we could really have used a chip over the top or a grubber into the corner to keep the defence guessing.

I said during the first hal that we were obviously looking to play the way we did, as there were only two players in for the Scarlets with the thermal under shirts on and they were Andy Fenby and Kris Phillips, so I think there was no intention to go wide at all.

I think that Vallejos needs to put some real work into his lineout training, him patting the ball down every time was not acceptable. Also he didn't seem to offer too much at the breakdown or in the loose either. Personally I hope he is give a few weeks on the sidelines to improve his skills (and during the LV= we can bllod younger players). Also the breakdown in general was a shambles, and maybe our normall Shingler/Turnbull/.McGog backrow is far more potent that I (and many others) have been giving them credit for.