The Scarlets will hope the first European fixture at the new £23m Parc y Scarlets will turnaround their dismal fortunes in the Heineken Cup.

Ulster’s convincing win at Ravenhill last Friday inflicted the Scarlets’ tenth straight defeat in the tournament.

The Welsh region cannot qualify from Pool Four but need a morale-boasting result to avoid the threat of a second successive whitewash.

But Matt Williams’ men need a big win to keep their outside hopes of reaching the quarter-finals alive, is determined to build on the home victory over the Scarlets when his side travel to Parc y Scarlets this Friday night for the fourth round of the Heineken Cup.

He has today named a 27man squad from which he will select his starting line up on Thursday morning and said: “We are confident, keen and motivated following our performance against Scarlets at Ravenhill on Friday night, but we are under no illusion that Llanelli as a club and community enjoys a great rugby tradition. 

“Just because they have moved stadium I don’t expect that the tradition will change, I firmly believe we will have to be playing at our best to come away with the points.

“If we hadn’t won on Friday night all the hard work and victories in the last number of games would have been for nothing, we wouldn’t have been back to square one, but it would have dented our confidence and that is not what this side needs.”

Additions to the squad include Bryan Young, Stuart Philpott, Thomas Anderson, Clinton Schifcofske, Ian Whitten, Paul Marshall and Paddy Wallace.

Clinton Schifcofske returns from injury and Paddy Wallace is included in the squad following his last minute withdrawal from the team on Friday at Ravenhill. Cillian Willis is ruled out of the fixture, the young scrum half fractured his cheek bone during a training session on Monday. Carlo Del Fava and Timoci Nagusa are also unavailable due to injury.

Tickets went on sale over the weekend for the Ulster v Leinster game on Saturday 27th December and the main Grand Stand has sold out already. Ticket sales have surpassed expectation on the opening weekend and supporters are advised to book early to avoid disappointment. Tickets are available from www.ulsterrugby.com, the Ravenhill Ticket Line 02890 493 222 Option 2 or through the Ravenhill Ticket Office Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm.

Ulster Squad

Forwards

Bryan Young; Justin Fitzpatrick, Rory Best, Nigel Brady, Tom Court, Brendan Botha, Ed O’Donoghue, Ryan Caldwell, Matt McCullough, Kieron Dawson, Robbie Diack, Stephen Ferris, David Pollock, Stuart Philpott, Thomas Anderson
Backs

Clinton Schifcofske; Bryn Cunningham, Darren Cave, Andrew Trimble, Ian Whitten, Paul Marshall, Isaac Boss, Paul Steinmetz, Ian Humphreys, Mark McCrea, Paddy Wallace, Simon Danielli