Scarlets include Six Nations quartet for Thomond clash

Rob LloydNews

Scarlets include Wales Six Nations squad members Ellis Mee, Joe Roberts, Kemsley Mathias and Taine Plumtree for the resumption of BKT United Rugby Championship action against Munster at Thomond Park on Saturday (17:15).

In all, there are five personnel changes from the home victory over Edinburgh in January.

In the back three, Mee comes onto the right wing, with left wing Steff Evans and full-back Ioan Nicholas retaining their spots.

Roberts partners Johnny Williams in midfield, while Ioan Lloyd again links up with scrum-half Gareth Davies.

Davies captains the side in the absence of Josh Macleod, who sits out the game with a slight  hamstring issue. 

In the front row, Mathias packs down alongside Marnus van der Merwe and Archer Holz.

Max Douglas gets the nod in the second row alongside Sam Lousi, while in the back row Plumtree (pictured) is selected at blindside and the fit-again Dan Davis at openside. Vaea Fifita wears the No. 8 jersey. Davis makes his first appearance since Bayonne in early December.

Further fitness boosts are provided by the return from injury of Wales international hooker Ryan Elias and prop Sam Wainwright, who are named among the replacements.

Head coach Dwayne Peel said: “We know that Thomond Park is a tough place to go, but we are excited by the challenge. You want to be prepared for a fight when you go there, that is a mindset thing for us. We can’t allow Munster to dictate the pace like two years ago (in Cork) when they blew us away in the first half hour before we clawed our way back.

“Take the Gloucester game out of it and we have been competitive when we have travelled this season, but lost some tight games. We lost to Glasgow by two points, we lost to Bayonne by one point, we lost to Ospreys by one point. We want to turn that tide.”

Scarlets team to play Munster Rugby at Thomond Park on Saturday, February 15 (5.15pm; S4C & Premier Sports)

15 Ioan Nicholas (Pontyberem); 14 Ellis Mee (West Bridgeford), 13 Joe Roberts (Burry Port), 12 Johnny Williams (Rams), 11 Steff Evans (Felinfoel); 10 Ioan Lloyd (CRICC), 9 Gareth Davies (Newcastle Emlyn; capt); 1 Kemsley Mathias (Narberth), 2 Marnus van der Merwe (Hoërskool Nelspruit), 3 Archer Holz (Lightning Ridge Tigers), 4 Max Douglas (Manly Marlins), 5 Sam Lousi (Bay Roskill Vikings), 6 Taine Plumtree (Old Boys University, Wellington), 7 Dan Davis (Llandeilo), 8 Vaea Fifita (Lions, Tonga)

Reps: 16 Ryan Elias (Carmarthen Athletic), 17 Alec Hepburn (Henley Hawks), 18 Sam Wainwright (Rhyl), 19 Alec Craig (Stewartry), 20 Jarrod Taylor (Western Province), 21 Archie Hughes (Tenby), 22 Charlie Titcombe (Stanford), 23 Macs Page (Crymych).

Unavailable because of injury

Josh Macleod, Sam Costelow, Ben Williams, Harri O’Connor, Josh Morse.

Unavailable because of international duty

Tom Rogers, Blair Murray, Eddie James, Henry Thomas.