Heineken is just champion for Scarlets

Having finished top of a group that included the Heineken Cup’s most successful ever club Toulouse, they are now up against one of those challenging for that mantle: defending champions Munster. 

WRU Audio: Scarlets coach Phil Davies has high Heineken Cup hopes

“To be playing the champions at Stradey on a Friday night is genuinely a fixture we are very excited about,” said Coach Phil Davies. “We have beaten two former champions in the pool and also a very good Premiership team in London Irish and it gives us a platform and momentum.

“It has given us confidence within reason that we can play quality rugby in dry conditions, as we showed in Toulouse home and away, and also we can play in the wet weather, in Ulster.

“However, Munster are battle-hardened in the Heineken Cup, they know all the nooks and crannies in this competition and they have beaten Leicester in Leicester so they will be coming into this in good form as well.”

Leicester have lifted the Heineken Cup in the past and this season became the first side to beat Munster at Thomond Park in European competition. They are a club Davies has looked to learn from in the past, but not so much this season.

“When I was at Leeds one of the main clubs we looked up to was Leicester and I spent a lot of time there with Dean Richards when they were going through their Heineken and League back-to-back wins; they were a club we wanted to emulate,” said Davies.

“It is something similar with Munster with what they have achieved over the last five or six years in Europe getting to a couple of finals and then winning the third time. Their persistence and the standard they have played with over three to five years is just fantastic and we have a great respect for them as a region here.

“Leicester played a very physical game that day in Munster and it worked for them. We have gone about our business concentrating mainly on delivering our strengths much as we are aware of Munster’s.”

One of the Scarlets key players will be skipper Simon Easterby, for the Ireland flanker has spent the last two months playing alongside most of the Munster pack in the Six Nations.

“I was lucky enough to work with Simon as a young guy and it is great the way he has played. He has had some great coaching at Llanelli with Gareth Jenkins and with Ireland and he is now a world class player,” said the former Wales No.8.

“He is our captain, but he is also our spiritual leader and players will follow him. Munster will be aware of the form he is in as well.”

The Scarlets have decided to play Friday night’s match at Stradey Park despite the lucrative lure of moving the match to a larger stadium. Davies believes that decision will give his team an extra edge.

“Having been in Rugby League country I have learned the economics of rugby and it is a business. We took a condition to stay at Stradey and we have got as many in there as we can,” he laughed. “We took the decision to give ourselves the best possible opportunity of going on in the competition and we think that is by playing at our spiritual home.”