Phil Davies’ Scarlets have won the Pool and are playing for a home draw in the quarter-final.

The all-conquering Welsh region have stunned London Irish, Toulouse and Ulster with road trip wins, and will be looking to complete a set of triple doubles with the visit of London Irish.


Should they make it six from six they will join an elite bunch. Only three teams have achieved this feat in the 11 seasons of European rugby. They are London Wasps in 1997/8, Bath Rugby in 2001/2, and Leinster in 2002/3 and 2004/5.


The Scarlets were the last Welsh team to make the last eight back in the 2003/4 season when they went out 27-10 to Biarritz Olympique – despite having earned a home tie with five Pool wins.

And the Scarlets have made just two changes to the team that booked their place in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals for Sunday’s clash against London Irish.


Mathew Watkins replaces Wales wing Mark Jones who has been ruled out with an ankle injury.


Kiwi prop Craig Dunlea takes over from countryman Deacon Manu in the front row as Director of Rugby Phil Davies keeps faith with the majority of the side that won 35-11 at Ulster.


Davis said: “We want continuity with our performance and our team selection, we have avoided making big changes.


“We were very pleased to qualify for the quarter-finals and the key now is to win the last Pool game and hopefully secure home advantage in the next round.”

There are four changes to the London Irish 22 that were involved in last Saturday’s game with Toulouse at Madejski Stadium.  Gonzalo Tiesi and Dominic Shabbo picked up injuries in that game which have not cleared up in time for today’s team announcement. 

Their places are taken by Nils Mordt and Justin Bishop respectively.  Among the other changes in the backs Michael Horak, Barry Everitt and Richie Rees start at full back, fly half and scrum half respectively.

In the pack Phil Murphy returns at No 8 in place of Juan Leguizamon.  The rest of the forwards played some part last week.