Scottish international John Barclay picks up the captain’s armband for Scarlets’ Guinness PRO14 season opener against Southern Kings on Saturday.
Barclay’s last outing as the side’s captain saw him lift the Guinness PRO12 trophy in Dublin back in May and he will be keen to get the new season off to a positive start against the South African newcomers.
Scarlets and Welsh rugby supporters alike will be excited by the prospect of seeing Leigh Halfpenny make his debut at Parc y Scarlets and playing his rugby back in Wales.
He’s joined in the back three by Johnny Mcnicholl and last season’s Guinness PRO12 top try scorer Steff Evans.
The pack is led by an all-international front row in Rob Evans, Ryan Elias and Samson Lee. International lock Jake Ball is joined in the second row by Tadhg Beirne whilst Aaron Shingler and James Davies join Barclay in the backrow.
Looking ahead to the opening round of the exciting new-look championship Pivac said; “It’s an exciting time. A new team and a new culture coming into our back yard is very exciting for everyone.
“We don’t know a lot about them but it just means we focus on our performance and I think at this time of the year most teams are doing that anyway. There have been quite a few changes from the side that played in Super Rugby but we’ve watched some of their matches and we’ve been quite impressed with how they play, they play an attractive style of rugby that will suit this competition.”
Scarlets side to take on Southern Kings at Parc y Scarlets, Saturday 2nd September, kick-off 5.30pm;
15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Johnny Mcnicholl, 13 Hadleigh Parkes, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Gareth Davies, 1 Rob Evans, 2 Ryan Elias, 3 Samson Lee, 4 Jake Ball, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 James Davies, 8 John Barclay ©
Replacements; Emyr Phillips, Dylan Evans, Werner Kruger, David Bulbring, Will Boyde, Jonathan Evans, Rhys Jones, Paul Asquith
