Stoddart impressed after coming on as a second half substitutue last week against Newport Gwent Dragons. In his first game for the Scarlets since breaking his leg in a pre-World Cup warm-up defeat by England at Twickenham, Stoddart looked to be at his bristling best and scored a thoroughly deserved try.
Clermont have a formidable home record and made Stade Marcel Michelin a fortress over the past few seasons.
Scarlets head coach Simon Easterby said the Scarlets were under no allusion as to the challenge ahead and said their game would have to be “close to perfect” to get a result – but added the players would approach that challenge positively and with no fear.
He said: “It doesn’t get much tougher than travelling to Clermont – the history they have in their home ground is second to nobody and we are fully aware of the task ahead of us. There are 47 teams before us who haven’t been able to win there – so we respect them and what they do at home.
“However, we also have to impose our game on them, as much as their back line is full of quality, ours is too and in terms of quality on paper we are fairly evenly matched.
“Clermont have such depth they have a couple of teams they can put out on the field that are capable of winning any game; they are very extremely well-drilled and very well-coached. It’s a mark of a good team that they haven’t hit their straps yet but they’ve been winning games. We know this one will be a target for them at home after losing out to Castres.
“We can’t hide from their home record but equally we will not just sit back and defend; we have to go there positively with a confident attitude. We’ll have to get a lot of things right and our game will have to be close to perfect.
“If we can do that, we have the type of quality to create and take opportunities. We know that we’ve won in France more than most but we see this as a fresh, new challenge for us and we believe we’re in a good place now to open our campaign with a good performance. The result in the end will be down to small margins.”
Easterby had a full squad to pick from for the big European opener, apart from wing Andy Fenby who is not available after failing to return to fitness from a dead leg.
Up front, the Scarlets put a new South African duo into the second row with this season’s signings Joe Snyman and George Earle combining for the first time. Impressive young Wales U20 tight head Samson Lee wins his place in the starting line-up after his man of the match performance last weekend against the Dragons alongside the very experienced front row performers Matthew Rees at hooker and Prop Phil John in an unchanged front row.
Scarlets: 15 Liam Williams, 14 George North, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Morgan Stoddart, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Tavis Knoyle, 1 Phil John, 2 Matthew Rees, 3 Samson Lee, 4 George Earle, 5 Johan Snyman, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 Josh Turnbull, 8 Rob McCusker (capt).
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Shaun Hopkins, 18 Deacon Manu, 19 Sione Timani, 20 Kieran Murphy, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Aled Thomas, 23 Gareth Maule.
