Ulster Rugby vs Scarlets

Payne’s proven skills as Defence Coach may come to the fore, and in the catch-the-eye- tackling of Stuart McCloskey, Will Addison, Jacob Stockdale and Louis Ludik in recent matches fans have seen an Ulster team which is mastering all the skills needed in modern, high-tempo rugby. McFarland will have emphasised, again, the need for discipline, in the set piece and at the breakdown: a low penalty count so often reflects effective, purposeful possession and intelligence. Both XVs this evening has players capable of capitalising on the smallest of errors, and limiting those is something that brings a smile to the worldly-wise features of the successful rugby coach. Ulster fans will be in expectant mood, and justifiably so, but they may need to show patience too if a talented and robust Scarlets team is to be diminished. For so many reasons, and for the positives which can be harvested tonight, it’s a game which will be as fascinating as it may possibly be close.

a five-year stint in a similar post at Crusaders. He was given much credit as New Zealand’s Super Rugby title was won this year, attracting attention beyond the southern hemisphere. He’s arrived at Parc y Scarlets with his squad only now returning to anything like full strength following the success of Wales in the World Cup, but even now injuries picked up in the Orient deny him the services of, amongst others, Lions Jonathan Davies, Leigh Halfpenny and Ken Owens, the half-back pairing of Gareth Davies and Rhys Patchell, centre Hadleigh Parkes and locks Wyn Jones and Jake Ball. He’ll hope some of those hardened warriors will be available this evening, but the fact that he’s guided the famous club to such a competitive PRO14 place despite these absentees says something about Mooar and his coaching team, even more about the quality of the resources at the Llanelli HQ. Winger Stef Evans is in prolific form for club and country, lock Tevita Retuva and gifted out- half Ryan Lamb were unlucky indeed to be part of a Scarlets side down to 14 men which lost 17-16 to a star-laden Toulon in the Challenge Cup last week. The sides this evening will have only the immediate matter in focus: a PRO14 win which keeps the pursuit of a coveted top three place at the end of the regular league season on track. Each side’s focus all week will have been on this Kingspan Stadium contest, Champions Cup and Challenge Cup concerns set firmly aside. In any campaign a match-up of Ulster and the Scarlets would be considered one of the most defining of a long season. Each club has a reputation for enjoying attacking, free-running rugby, but pitch and overhead conditions at the end of November in Belfast might dictate other stratagems. Ulster’s Attack Coach, Dwayne Peel, is a Scarlets ‘old boy’ of distinction and he will have a lean and hungry set of backs keen to exploit space and to employ the sustained pace in midfield and on the wings. But if the game becomes something of a physical contest, an arm-wrestle, then Jared

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