Owens and new-look Scarlets are gelling nicely

The Welsh region have promoted Wayne Pivac from forwards coach to head coach and started the domestic season in mixed fashion with two wins, two draws and two losses from their first six games.

Attention has since turned to the continent and Pivac's side impressed in their opening round against two-time defending European champions Toulon.

And while they eventually ended up losing at the Stade Mayol Owens believes his side are coming together nicely.

"The planning had been done with Simon and we haven't changed much that was going to happen this season anyway in terms of style of play we were looking at playing but we are going in the right direction," he said.

"We need to build for the rest of the season, we need a bit of consistency with coaching staff and playing staff and really try and improve our act as a squad to be more consistent in what we are doing.

"That will only come with time. We are a bit of a work in progress but hopefully with a bit of stability we can get some success.

"It is a long way to improve but whenever a new coach comes in with a slightly new defensive system it going to take a bit of time but a lot of it is down to individual error in those first two games against Ulster and Leinster especially.

"We were comfortably ahead against Ulster and we let them back into it and then Leinster we were in it for about 25/30 minutes and then we got blown away from individual error and boys not sticking to the system and making their tackles.

"We are slowly learning from that, we've had two or three better performances over the last couple of weeks, we've had only one defeat in the league this year. Whichever way you look at it, positively or negatively, we've only lost two games (in the PRO12)."

With focus on Europe at the moment the Wales hooker has also called on his teammates to start turning Parc y Scarlets into a fortress.

"We've been slightly inconsistent at times during the year but with a little bit more consistency, a bit more accuracy and less error count we can surprise a few teams and hopefully we can pick up some homes wins and some on the road and push on," he added.

"That's all you can do, you've just got to pick up the victories especially targeting the home games and pick up as much on the road as possible, all you can do is play it game by game.

"Once you start worrying too much you forget about what's right in front of you, it's about taking one step at a time, game by game picking up the results and once you get the momentum it's hard to stop it and not get some success."

And for the man himself, as his recovery from neck surgery continues, a spot at next year's World Cup has not been given up on just yet.

"It was obviously frustrating but injuries are part of parcel of rugby," he added.

"One way you can look at it is I've had it now and can get a good bit of rest and rehab and conditioning.

"Some of the other players will have a big couple of months of rugby leading into the World Cup, but I may have had a bit of a rest.

"But really you can never predict these things, last World Cup year I had my last neck op in the January, thought I wouldn't be able to get back in contention for the World Cup but the boys ended up picking up some injuries towards the end of the season and I ended up going to the World Cup, things happen for a reason.

"You've got to look after your own health and wellbeing as well and thankfully it is only a 12 week injury and I'm going to have a chance hopefully to get back and try and get a bit of form to prove to the national selectors that I deserve a spot."

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