The stakes couldn’t be higher – Nigel Davies’s Scarlets side know that a defeat tomorrow against Perpignan at Stade Aime Giral will signal an end to Welsh interest in this year’s Heineken Cup.
The Scarlets will be encouraged by the fact that they secured a 43-34 victory at Parc y Scarlets earlier in the season with a stunning brand of running rugby but Scarlets forwards coach Robin McBryde knows the French outfit will be a totally different proposition at home.
He said: “It will be tougher as we’re playing away from home. There is a lot at stake for both teams and it’s winner takes all in the cauldron of the Bull Ring. We are all too aware of the pressure we are going to come under, so it’s a big test for us. However, we have to take confidence from our result over them earlier this season when we gave ourselves a platform and were able to play our game.
“The boys know the responsibility of this weekend, we have an opportunity and as big a challenge as it is we are going to give it the best we can. We’ve had a good training week, we take pride in the way we prepare and have been just focusing on our performance.
“The players have knuckled down this week and they have in the back of their minds the peace of mind that we gave as much as we could last weekend [against Leicester Tigers]. e gave a good account of ourselves and there were certain crucial moments in that game that were not in our control.
“There was some disappointment but not despondency – we haven’t lost back to back games this season and we reacted brilliantly in coming back from the defeats at Leicester and the Ospreys this season when we dug deep, were too down on ourselves and won next time out.
“We are realistic and have our feet firmly on the ground and just focus on the areas we can control and that’s what we are doing.”
Scarlets captain, David Lyons said: “Leicester toughed it out against us and we know Perpignan will throw a few more things at us. They have a proud home record, the crowd will be fierce – they are the big guns in France but we’re confident in our ability and our destiny is in our own hands.
“We stood toe-to-toe with Leicester throughout most of the game, I don’t think anyone can fault our commitment around the field and there was really only a small margin in that game when it turned. You have to learn from it but we know that we have a side that can match them in attack and with our heads on in defense, we can do a job against Perpignan.
“The commitment and improvement we’re showing is something that we are proud of, we are enjoying the rugby we play and we have some young guys here who will not shirk and put their bodies on the line every game and give everything they’ve got.”
The Scarlets are on 15 points in Pool 5 of the Heineken Cup behind Leicester and Perpignan who are on 17 points each.
With two places in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup for the highest scoring second placed pool teams, the Scarlets (15 points) will be keeping a close eye on three other clubs’ results as well as their own this weekend – including Ulster (17 points) Clermont Auvergne (14 points) and Wasps (15 points) who are all likely to be in the running for the best runner-up spots.
The Scarlets have played Perpignan five times in Europe – winning two of their games in 2001/02 (20-6) and 2010/11 (43-34) both at home.
