Scarlets' Stephen Jones out to catch Gatland’s eye

Jan 18 2008 by Staff Reporter, Western Mail

STEPHEN JONES will make a timely return to Scarlets colours tomorrow just a fortnight before Wales open their Six Nations Championship campaign against England at Twickenham.

The Wales outside-half has been sidelined since injuring a thumb in the Magners League victory over the Ospreys on December 27.

So he will be keen to show Wales coach Warren Gatland what he can do against his old club Clermont Auvergne in what is the Scarlets’ final Heineken Cup Pool 5 match.

Though it is effectively a dead rubber for the Stradey Park region it is a game they will desperately want to win to avoid the spectre of a pool whitewash.

Having already suffered double defeat to both Wasps and Munster, they do not want to go the same way against Clermont.

All this a year on from when they won all six pool matches.

And Scarlets’ Simon Easterby is determined the region grab some points before their meek exit from the tournament.

“We need to get a win,” Easterby insisted. “We have obviously been out of this competition for a number of months since we played Munster, but it is important we play well and get a result.

“We have been competitive this year, but we haven’t been as clinical as we were last year and that is shown by the fact we haven’t got a win under our belts.

“It’s through no lack of effort, it’s just through things not going well and, as individuals, we haven’t been on top of our game and as a result we have struggled.”

Despite Clermont only having a mathematical chance of making the quarter-final stage Easterby is expecting a tough brief against a star-studded French outfit which sent the Scarlets off on their losing Heineken streak with a 48-21 defeat back in November.

“Clermont probably have the strongest squad in Europe at the moment and they will want to come to Stradey and win, there is no doubt about that,” added Easterby.

“They are a great side and we have to make sure we are up for it.

“We’ll have a few players back this week and I think there will be a fair bit of passion and pride when we run out, as there has been all season, to be honest. We have just let ourselves down in key areas and hopefully we can get our game-plan and processes right, and the pride and the passion will take care of itself.”

As well as Jones, the Scarlets make five other changes, two positional from the side that was thrashed 40-7 by Wasps at Adams Park last Sunday.

The only other change behind the scrum is Dafydd James returning on the wing in place of Darren Daniel.

Stephen Jones will partner Liam Davies at scrum-half with Sale Sharks-bound Dwayne Peel still nursing a shoulder problem.

In the pack the Scarlets welcome back hooker Matthew Rees and openside Gavin Thomas from injury with Simon Easterby going from open to blindside flank, with Dafydd Jones moving to the base of the scrum from blindside.

The Scarlets have named new signing, the Samoa hooker Mahonri Schwalger, who signed this week for the rest of the season, on the replacements bench alongside Morgan Stoddart.

Scarlets: C Thomas; D James, M Watkins, G Evans, M Jones; S Jones, L Davies; I Thomas, M Rees, D Manu, A Eustace, S MacLeod, S Easterby, D Jones, G Thomas. Reps: M Schwalger, B Broster, N Thomas, A Popham, G Cattle, D Daniel, M Stoddart.