Scarlets v Aironi (Sun) 4 September Kick-off: 1600 BST

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Scarlets v Aironi (Sun)
Gareth Maule has challenged Scarlets' younger players to deliver this season Prop Iestyn Thomas captains Scarlets as they open their Pro12 season at home to Italians Aironi on Sunday.

Seven players, including senior fly-halves Rhys Priestland and Stephen Jones, are on Wales World Cup duty, while Matthew Rees is injured.

Dan Newton takes the 10 shirt and partners Rhodri Williams at half-back.

Aironi have 10 players with Italy for the World Cup, so there are debuts for full-back Ruggero Trevisan and South African fly-half Naas Olivier.

Wing Riccardo Pavan is also in line to make his debut and if his twin brother, Gilberto, comes off the bench, they will be the first ever set of twin brothers to play together in a Celtic Rugby or RaboDirect Pro12 game.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/14737845.stm

Scarlets: Daniel Evans; Lee Williams, Rhodri Gomer Davies, Aled Thomas, Andy Fenby; Dan Newton, Rhodri Williams; Iestyn Thomas (capt), Emyr Phillips, Rhys Thomas, Aaron Shingler, Dominic Day, Rob McCusker, Josh Turnbull, Ben Morgan.
Replacements: Kirby Myhill, Phil John, Simon Gardiner, Lou Reed, Richie Pugh, Justin James, Rhys Jones, Adam Warren.

Airioni: Ruggero Trevisan; Riccardo Pavan, Roberto Quartaroli, Gabriel Pizarro, Giovanbattista Venditti; Naas Olivier, Tito Tebaldi; Matias Aguero, Roberto Santamaria (capt), Luca Redolfini, Joshua Furno, George Biagi, Josh Sole, Nicola Cattina, Nick Williams.
Replacements: Davide Giazzon, Alberto De Marchi, Fabio Staibano, Filippo Ferrarini, Fran Viljoen, Giorgio Bronzini, Alberto Benettin, Gilberto Pavan.

Referee: Andrew McMenemy (SRU)

Assistant Referees: Neil Hennessy, Greg Morgan (both WRU)

Citing Commissioner: Richard Gwynn (WRU)

Television match official: Tony Rowlands (WRU)
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AlynDavies wrote:I really think Steven Shingler has dropped a bolluck by going to London Irish this season, he would be playing now for the Scarlets, and with Jones retiring soon, he would of had a real chance of competing with Preistland for the 10 shirt in a season or so...

Can we really blame Shingler for leaving though? This weekend he got gametime in his new side's first league outing while despite playing his skin off for Llanelli last season the Scarlets barely touched him outside the LV=. There will have been times when they could have used him during international absences and injuries but he hardly got a look in all season. I say it's entirely the coaching staff's fault for utterly overlooking a talented young prospect when they could have blooded himand upped competition for places in the process. If Shingler ends up playing for England I'll personally hunt each of them down

It goes back to the wider issue related to what Richard Webster said, about youth not being brought up in a competitive atmosphere and getting a pitiful amount of gametime from the regions.

wow, fair play, so who should they have dropped for him to play? Steven Jones or Rhys Priestland? in the end he was looking at the fact that even though Steven Jones is going to be drawing down his international career, he's still available for the Scarlets, Rhys Priestland is ahead of him and Jordan Williams is closing fast, I think he put 2 + 2 together and came up with the correct decision to leave, where I think he did go wrong is where he went, I'm amazed the Cardiff Blues didn't try to get him there, the Dragons and the Ospreys are sorted at 10, but the Blues should have been in there and snapped him up, maybe the WRU needs to look at that and have some sort of referral system, if Central contracts aren't coming in, where they can alert other regions if it looks like Wales is about to lose a player, because, as you said, Shingler could end up playing for England after 4 years, if the U-20's doesn't tie them in that is.

I expected better from Ben Morgan Yesterday apart from one run I thought he had a very poor game.

it looked like they'd sussed out he was a major threat and decided that he was to marked heavily, from where I was sat he seemed to be double-tackled just about every time he got the ball.

If you'd read my post carefully you'd see that I never suggested dropping either Priestland or Jones in favour of Shingler, though even when both were fit you'd think Nigel and co could have risked Shingler on the bench once in a while for the sake of strength in depth or even just in th plain interest of resting one of the two others.

The fact is that even when both were away on 6N duty Shingler didn't get his chance. Newton got picked everytime instead and whether he's more talented remains questionable at least. But are you saying that last season was the best the coaches could have done at blooding Shingler?

I don't believe so myself and as long as the coaches aren't doing all they can to ensure success I am disappointed. Maybe that is part of the reason why some other nations are ahead of Wales currently: they don't focus on only a couple of individuals per place, they do all in their power to ensure that youth gets its due experience and provides more options.

Anyway, in the long run that is why I hold Nige and co responsible. We could advance quite a distance if cockups like this were avoided in future.

Turkster wrote:it looked like they'd sussed out he was a major threat and decided that he was to marked heavily, from where I was sat he seemed to be double-tackled just about every time he got the ball.

In a way that's a good thing though because it's creating space out wide for other players, the Scarlets didn't take advantage of it though.

fair enough, I'm happy enough that they're bringing on youngsters as much as they can, you're not going to keep everyone happy though. if Shingler thought he was worth a place and the Coaching staff didn't then he's going to be fed up and leave, don't forget Dan Evans is an outside half too, there's Newton and Priestland to keep happy, not quite as easy as you make out.

Turkster wrote:I'm amazed the Cardiff Blues didn't try to get him there, the Dragons and the Ospreys are sorted at 10, but the Blues should have been in there and snapped him up, maybe the WRU needs to look at that and have some sort of referral system, if Central contracts aren't coming in, where they can alert other regions if it looks like Wales is about to lose a player, because, as you said, Shingler could end up playing for England after 4 years, if the U-20's doesn't tie them in that is.

The Blues are/were NOT signing any players this summer.

In any case, LI offer Shinglers a full contract (worth a lot of money from what I hear) the Blues wouldnt take the risk on a youngster who has barely played for the Scarlets (short of an excellent performance against LI in the LV - probably where he was picked up)


With the Blues cutting cost I am glad they didnt offer new contracts to unexperienced youngster - that would be a real kick in the teeth to the player that have been let go.

wales606 wrote:

The Blues are/were NOT signing any players this summer.

In any case, LI offer Shinglers a full contract (worth a lot of money from what I hear) the Blues wouldnt take the risk on a youngster who has barely played for the Scarlets (short of an excellent performance against LI in the LV - probably where he was picked up)


With the Blues cutting cost I am glad they didnt offer new contracts to unexperienced youngster - that would be a real kick in the teeth to the player that have been let go.

'inexperienced' - just so you know.

Hey c'mon guys, no need to pick on others' spelling here.

Whilst it's a shame that Shingler didn't go to another Welsh region, it's going to be great experience for him playing in a completely different environment. I think he'll learn a lot, and I hope one day he'll return to the Scarlets.

I think the Scarlets are doing such a brilliant job in bringing youngsters through and providing them with chances at a much higher level (see Scott Williams and George North), there are bound to be a few that are going to miss out. That's just how it goes.

Dreamer, with the backs that Scarlets have I actually think Jonothan Davies may be losing his place in the team within a year unless he really improves. He doesn't seem a confident player at all unlike the rest of his team-mates for the Scarlets and Wales.

Erm, if Regan was still with us you might be right NJ, but I can't see Maule or Reynolds replacing him, although they may very well prove me wrong. Especially Maule, he was brilliant for us last season.

What I'm hoping for is that Reynolds and Maule when fit will work well for us, so that when Foxy and Scott come back to us, we'll have 4 quality players to choose from and rotate. It can only be a good thing for us.

What I hate about Foxy playing for Wales though is that they keep playing him at 13. He's a 12. The only time I've seen him show even a bit of his abilitiy was the 20mins Scott Williams played with him in the centre against the BaaBaa's.

That's the problem with Jon, never shows the ability that he has. Not for Scarlets much either, the times he has done it happened to be against Italian opposition. I've been very impressed with Scott Williams, more than I ever have been with Jon Davies. Rheon James might also make the breakthrough and get into the Scarlets as I hear he's a pretty decent player.

Maule has played very well for you, even he showed up more than JD. I wanted him to get a call up to help solve our 13 crisis.

S4C have now uploaded the second half as well to their website, just a heads up.

You say that about Scott, but he only played a handful of matches for us last season, and I'm pretty sure he didn't even play in the Heineken for us!

he's taken his chance with Wales due to injuries and he's really excelled. I'm really, really pleased for him.

Rheon James is great, he and North linked up really well together for the Welsh U18's a couple of seasons back, but he's not quite made the breakthrough at the Scarlets yet. He'll get more chances though I'm sure.

Foxy is a superb player for the Scarlets. He's deceptively fast, and his handling has improved last season no end. He's been unfortunate with injuries, but his strike rate last season was brilliant. He's such an attacking threat I can't really see the Scarlets not picking him when he comes back. Wales just don't use him properly though imo. Would love to have seen him being able to link up with a player like Shanklin but we don't have that sort of player available to us anymore.

Agree with you that Maule has played well, but I wouldn't say better than Foxy. He really made a breakthrough for us last season so I hope he can improve on that. He was very unlucky that Scott Williams was called up to the Wales squad over him I think, even if Williams will turn out to be the better player.

Scott Williams has come from no where really, most Scarlets fans were worried when King announced he was leaving, then from nowhere Gatland picks this Scarlet unknown for the Barbarians game. He comes on as a sub and makes a few brilliant breaks and Wales has a new golden boy!

AlynDavies wrote:Scott Williams has come from no where really, most Scarlets fans were worried when King announced he was leaving, then from nowhere Gatland picks this Scarlet unknown for the Barbarians game. He comes on as a sub and makes a few brilliant breaks and Wales has a new golden boy!

are you seriously trying to credit Gatland with discovering Scott Williams? most Scarlet fans knew he was coming through the system and weren't hugely worried at all when Regan left, we knew we'd had his best years and he was nowhere near his pre-injury form.

nottins_jones wrote:That's the problem with Jon, never shows the ability that he has. Not for Scarlets much either, the times he has done it happened to be against Italian opposition. I've been very impressed with Scott Williams, more than I ever have been with Jon Davies. Rheon James might also make the breakthrough and get into the Scarlets as I hear he's a pretty decent player.

Maule has played very well for you, even he showed up more than JD. I wanted him to get a call up to help solve our 13 crisis.

there's so much wrong in this post it's hard to believe you're not on a wind-up.

Turkster wrote:are you seriously trying to credit Gatland with discovering Scott Williams? most Scarlet fans knew he was coming through the system and weren't hugely worried at all when Regan left, we knew we'd had his best years and he was nowhere near his pre-injury form.

No, no mate. The credit goes to the Scarlets academy of course, Scott has played 20 games for the Scarlets already so it's not as if he's like George North who potentially could of played more times for Wales than for the Scarlets if Wales have a good World Cup!
Perhaps I should of re-worded my statement to "few outside the Scarlets" then

turkster, I think you've mistaken me for someone who gives a fudge about your tantrums.

Agree with most of what you say Dreamer. Just thought JD would be a lot better and hasn't really improved. I'm sure he can, the Scarlets is probably the best place for a backline player to improve. I was really impressed by Maule; big, strong and even started to mimic the hands/skills the Regan King had.

nottins_jones wrote:turkster, I think you've mistaken me for someone who gives a fudge about your tantrums.

Agree with most of what you say Dreamer. Just thought JD would be a lot better and hasn't really improved. I'm sure he can, the Scarlets is probably the best place for a backline player to improve. I was really impressed by Maule; big, strong and even started to mimic the hands/skills the Regan King had.

*EDIT yes I say that about Scott... Showing up very well for so little experience don't you think? It's great how much confidence he plays with, we need more players like that.

They were mainly LV sorts of matches though Alyn (although I am surprised it's as many as 20!) he wasn't first choice or near it really for us last season, so whilst us Scarlets may have had faith in his ability, it's still amazing how quickly he's risen up to now be going to play for Wales in a World Cup!

NJ - yeah I think Maule is brilliant and he and the other's learnt a heck of a lot from Regan King. Apparently he used to do special training sessions with the Scarlets just completely aimed at handling skills. Makes me think how much we're going to miss him in that respect, because the level of handling in the Scarlets' backline is what makes them so effective imo. Foxy will come good, last season was only his 2nd season at fully senior level really. He's still learning, which is what's so exciting about him.

nottins_jones wrote:turkster, I think you've mistaken me for someone who gives a fudge about your tantrums.

you know, there's a saying I think of every time I read one of your posts, - "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."


fits you so well.

Hey I'm on tv

ha good spot Alyn.

Turkster - hey c'mon, let's all play nice here, we're obviously not all going to agree with each other (how boring would that be!) but no need to be like that I don't think.

That's nice Turkster , well not really cuz I don't give a fudge. WORD

Dreamer, if that's true I just gained a lot of respect for Regan.

South stand, awesome, I was a bit higher up, had a good view of the Rhys Thomas try, we were in line with the 22 when he scored that.

I have to disagree about john davies, lots of question marks over his game for me.

Handling skills average, kicking is poor and he charges out of the defensive line too often for my liking (see wales vs ba bas)

I like the look of young williams though , would also like to see North get some game time at 13 in the future

Turkster wrote:South stand, awesome, I was a bit higher up, had a good view of the Rhys Thomas try, we were in line with the 22 when he scored that.

You must of only been a few seats away from me then, I was in that area also, just away from the walkway.
Block S10
Row L
Seat 0182
Turnstile ST6

Those are the reasons why some have Q marks over him jb... He also seems really quiet, as in not vocal. I could be wrong. On a possitve. we have seen him do some damage with the ball in hand.

wales v baabaa's I'm pretty sure he was covering the defensive line because of all of Henson's mistakes. If he wasn't then I agree that was a very poor showing by him.

Foxy actually has a pretty decent kicking game. Only showed it once for Wales though and that was against Scotland in the 6N's. His handling can be a bit suspect, but then again at times (like v Argentina) he can have some incredible touches. A lot to work on I completely agree, but a mass of potential.

Not sure about Georgie at 13. I know he's like to play there, but I just think he's so dangerous on the wing. Could definitely maybe use him there at some points during a game to change things up though.

My partner just says "spot the Ospreys fan, whos not smiling when the Scarlets score"!

Have come late to this thread but if Regan King gave coaching to that midfield in how to pass the Scarlets need a refund.Granted the weather was grim but it looked as if they had never seen each other before.Poorest display of back play that I can remember from the Scarlets.

he has size and power but without king putting him into gaps I wonder how special he really is. Guess well see from now on.

I hope he proves me wrong and has a storming world cup,

Any scarlet fans on here know much about this kid in the under 20 set up (james ) he is supposedly one to watch

Taffineastbourne wrote:Have come late to this thread but if Regan King gave coaching to that midfield in how to pass the Scarlets need a refund.Granted the weather was grim but it looked as if they had never seen each other before.Poorest display of back play that I can remember from the Scarlets.

True but as I said earlier, the Scarlets got caught by the rain, an hour before kick off, it was boiling hot, with sun, just before kick off, it went cloudy then hammered down with rain. I think the Scarlets had shorter studs in the first half, because a few of them looked like elephants on ice skates in the first half... you only have to see the break the Aironi player made in the 6th minute, you see 2-3 Scarlets lose their footing and fall on the ground. and on 11 minutes 50 seconds a Scarlets centre (12) falls flat on his face underneath his own posts, when the Scarlets (14) try a counter attack from a turnover.
In the second half the rain got more intense, but the Scarlets were much more solid on their feet. I assume a change of studs was the difference.

Taffineastbourne wrote:Have come late to this thread but if Regan King gave coaching to that midfield in how to pass the Scarlets need a refund.Granted the weather was grim but it looked as if they had never seen each other before.Poorest display of back play that I can remember from the Scarlets.

those 2 joined this summer after Regan left and I think it was the 1st time they'd played together, so you're right on both counts.

taff - the ones King helped are all at the world cup! And Gomer Davies and Aled Thomas, the two centres who were playing (although THomas is actually a fly half), are new signings. So that might explain it for you

JB - Foxy played really well at centre paired up with both Maule and Williams last season, it wasn't just King. He does need to come good for Wales though.

And do you mean Rheon James? He's really talented. Huge player as well, very much in the George North catagory. Saw him play a few games for the Scarlets last season, really quick, but still a bit raw. Hope we see more of him this season.

jb1973 wrote:he has size and power but without king putting him into gaps I wonder how special he really is. Guess well see from now on.

I hope he proves me wrong and has a storming world cup,

Any scarlet fans on here know much about this kid in the under 20 set up (james ) he is supposedly one to watch

had a great game for the semi-pro's at 9 away at Newport, can also play wing, there were a few people wondering why he wasn't playing Sunday instead of the youngster at 9. Think the game was on ScrumV on Sunday night, although I missed it.

Ah is that Justin James (or something like taht?) I also heard he had a stormer against Newport.

I thought he meant Justin James, could have been Rheon though.

Turkster wrote:had a great game for the semi-pro's at 9 away at Newport, can also play wing, there were a few people wondering why he wasn't playing Sunday instead of the youngster at 9. Think the game was on ScrumV on Sunday night, although I missed it.

https://www.606v2.com/t13133-rabo-direct-pro-12-fixture-list-matches-links-tv-links

Try that thread mate, all this weeks rugby, with links to watch games is there.

Turkster wrote:I thought he meant Justin James, could have been Rheon though.

Definitely now. JB, which one did you mean??

rehon is the kid i meant sorry to confuse you guys, but your 100% right abiy that llanelli rfc scrum half he looked quality and scored a great try

felt sorry for that young kid sunday, looked a bit lost but hell have better days in the future im sure

jb1973 wrote:felt sorry for that young kid sunday, looked a bit lost but hell have better days in the future im sure

Yeah heavy raid, no chance to get his footing because of the pitch, and he just turned 18, a bad mix, but at least no harm was done. the Scarlets won the game and the kid hasn't been lynched in the papers. But clearly he needs more time in the Premiership before coming up to this level. He really needs to stop pointing and talking to the ball, and actually pick it up and pass it though!