The Scarlets lost both games in their back-to-back festive fixtures with the Ospreys by just a single score having come within a whisker of beating league leaders Munster in Cork a fortnight ago.
They previously ran French giants ASM Clermont Auvergne close for much of their December double header in the Heineken Cup before running out of steam in the latter stages to leave them in third place in Pool 3 ahead of the final two pool games.
Stopping the rot of a run of six games without a win dating back to victory over Connacht on November 23 will be no easy feat given that they travel to big-spending Racing Metro on Friday but Easterby is keen to kick-start the season here and now.
“We have plenty of quality in the ranks and it’s important that we get some results under our belts. There’s no better place to start that than in Paris this weekend,” Easterby told the Scarlets website.
“We’ll be energised as a group going back into the Heineken Cup this week and we’ve already shown this season that we can create things in broken play. Ultimately, a lot of the things we’re not doing or not getting right is within our control and we’ll be looking to put that right on Friday evening.
“We’ve probably made things hard on ourselves with back-to-back losses to Clermont but this group of players needs to feel that the hard work they’ve been putting in is paying dividends.
“We want to put the type of performance in that will get some momentum back. There’ll be players leaving us after round six as they head back into (international) camp and we need to make sure that those players leave us in good spirits feeling that they have contributed to getting some momentum back into our season.”
Those sentiments have been echoed by Phil John, with the veteran prop believing that taking on a side with as many star names as Racing is the kind of challenge that will bring the best out of the Scarlets regardless of recent frustrations.
“We’ve lost very narrowly in the last few games but there’s no greater place to go this weekend and put in a performance,” added John.
“We will look at the positives from recent performances in training this week. It’s a big challenge for us against one of the big French sides in the European Cup but it’s a great challenge for us to face head on after the disappointment of the last few results.”
