Proctor Back In Side For Sale

Llanelli make two changes to the side that beat Sale Sharks in the Heineken Cup at Heywood Rd last week for the return visit to Stradey Park on Friday (Kick-off 1930).

Wayne Proctor starts on the wing in place of Salesi Finau, who injured his knee during the 30-19 victory over Sale and is ruled out for two to three weeks.

Scarlets fitness coach Proctor holds joint second place in the all time Heineken Cup try scorers table for his club with eight tries and figures in his first European match this season.

He is preferred to replacement full-back Barry Davies who came on for Finau last week in a positional switch with Garan Evans.

That means Evans stays at full-back and Proctor joins the squad in a direct swap for the Tongan wing. There is also one change on the bench with specialist Hooker Marcus Thomas recovering from injury to replace prop Phil John.

Coach Nigel Davies was pleased by the way the Scarlets dominated possession against the English premiership’s second-placed side last week and they are looking for a repeat performance.

“We played a lot of open rugby in Sale and where able to put more than eight phases of play together on more than eight occasions and that’s a huge statistic for us,” said Davies.

“The longer you keep hold of the ball the more even the most organised defenses start to open up and that continuity has been a major aim for us.

“We know we have the ability to break teams down and we have been working on multi-skilling throughout the side. All the players need to be able to ruck and win the ball in the tackle area, just as everyone needs to be able to string passes together.

“We then create an expansive brand of rugby which is good for the players and good for the fans and produces results.

“We have made no secret of the fact that the Heineken Cup is the focus of our season and that is when we look to peak. It seems this year that one of the second qualifying spots could come from a pool outside of those with the Italian teams in and we are conscious that we have to keep scoring well and winning, to maximise our chances of progression.”

And Davies was equally bullish about Sale’s team selection after they left the much touted England star Jason Robinson out of their starting line-up last week.

“Robinson or no Robinson, it makes no difference to our preparation,” he added. ” We want to win set pieces, get our performance right and stamp our authority on the game from the start and then the rest will come.”

Llanelli: Garan Evans; Wayne Proctor, Matthew Watkins, Leigh Davies (captain), Mark Jones; Stephen Jones, Dwayne Peel; Iestyn Thomas, Robin McBryde, Martyn Madden, Vernon Cooper, Chris Wyatt, Simon Easterby, Dafydd Jones, Scott Quinnell

Replacements: John Davies, Marcus Thomas, Luke Gross, David Hodges, Guy Easterby, Gareth Bowen, Barry Davies.