Scarlets captain Ken Owens has been handed a different jersey than his usual No.2 for this weekends clash v Dragons.
The Scarlets are in the middle of an injury crisis particularly in the back-row so the 60 capped Welsh hooker has been asked to stand in at No.8 this weekend.
? Here’s the team to take on Dragons in Saturday’s #GUINNESSPRO14 clash.
? https://t.co/9JQyys0h0D
? Dyma’r tîm i wynebu y Dreigiau ar gyfer gêm dydd Sadwrn yn rownd nesaf o’r #GUINNESSPRO14 pic.twitter.com/NMop38jYbA— Scarlets Rugby (@scarlets_rugby) January 4, 2025
Scarlets were already missing Blade Thomson (concussion), Uzair Cassiem (shoulder), Aaron Shingler (knee), Lewis Rawlins (shoulder) and Josh Macleod (foot), Following the loss to Cardiff Blues last weekend they have been depleted even further with James Davies (foot) and Will Boyde (ribs) both unavilable.
Former Wales U20s captain Tom Phillips only just returning from concussion issues, so Owens is selected at 8 alongside Ed Kennedy and 20-year-old Dan Davis – the first time Wales’ first-choice hooker has started a game in that position in his professional career.
This hasn’t been the first experimental positional change coach Wayne Pivac has been forced to make this season. Hadleigh Parkes has
Wayne Pivac still has no place in his team for flying winger Steff Evans. Pivac as honest as ever explained why he continues to omit the prolific try scorer from his team.
“At the moment it is about being a bit ball tough or tougher in the contact area.
“He has got the highest turnover rate and teams are targeting him with the high ball and that’s plain for everyone to see.
“He is working on those areas of his game and we would like to think he will be joining our ranks again after some more hard work behind the scenes which is ongoing.”
As for the Dan Jones selection at 10, Pivac again explained his reasoning.
“We went with Hadleigh over the last two weeks after looking at what the opposition we were playing and what was coming down that channel,” he added.
“One of our 10s is probably at the bottom of the competition for tackle completion and the other one was not far off.
“It was costing us in games and we went with Hadleigh to shore up that part of the game and it did and he plugged that gap quite nicely.
“The other aspect is game management. We have had a chat with Dan and he knows he played far from the perfect game when he came on last weekend.”
Refreshingly honest from the soon to be Welsh coach.
