Scarlets seek reward for consistent and hard graft

Head Coach Simon Easterby said that his players would look to reward themselves for the hard work and effort that has gone into their last two performances by securing a victory in the return fixture of the Welsh derby in the West on Friday night.

With such tight score lines and competitive performances in both their fixtures against Munster and then the Ospreys last time out, the Scarlets Head Coach said his team deserved to get a result this weekend.

However, the Scarlets know they have a tough task ahead to get a win at the battleground of the Liberty Stadium but added that had given enough in both their recent performances against table topping sides Munster and the Ospreys to win both games -with only one score's difference between the Scarlets and their opposition in both fixtures.

Easterby said: "The players have responded well in training this week after the disappointment of Boxing Day, and it's good to have the Welsh derbies back-to-back for many reasons; it's good in terms of preparation during the week to play the same team again and it gives our players an edge and leaves a taste in the mouth with the desire to put right the previous performance.

"And for our supporters there's something to get behind as well in terms of giving the players a lift, particularly as it's against our nearest rivals. The support over the festive period in these Welsh derbies has been brilliant and we should applaud our supporters for really showing their loyalty to regional rugby by backing us in big numbers at our games.

"It's going to be another packed night at the Liberty as well in a very positive way to round off the festive derby series."

Easterby added that Friday night's occasion was a big platform for the Scarlets in their league ambitions: "We need to reward ourselves more for what we have put in - we had a strong finish against the Ospreys and were inches away from stealing that game - so there's plenty of confidence in our team that we can put in challenging performance again.

"We've had everything in our control over the past couple of weeks and the results have not matched the effort that has gone in; some of our decision-making hasn't been right and we can improve on our accuracy. We let the last couple of results slip away from ourselves when they were ours for the taking.

"We just seem to have made life more difficult for ourselves by making the wrong decisions at some key moments; however we've learnt from those lessons from and have been able to go into detail this week to put it right and make sure we reward ourselves on Friday night at the Liberty."

Scarlets team v Ospreys, Friday 3rd January kick-off 7.15pm at Liberty Stadium;

15 Gareth Owen, 14 Kristian Phillips, 13 Nick Reynolds, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Frazier Climo, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Rhodri Williams, 1 Phil John, 2 Emyr Phillips, 3 Samson Lee, 4 Jake Ball, 5 George Earle, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 John Barclay, 8 Rob McCusker (c)

Replacements: Kirby Myhill, Rob Evans, Jacobie Adriaanse, Johan Snyman, Aaron Shingler, Gareth Davies, Aled Thomas, Jordan Williams.