European Rugby Champions Cup Pool 3: Scarlets v Toulon preview
Last Updated: 24/01/15 7:30pm
Rhys Priestland will make his 150th Scarlets appearance in Saturday’s European Rugby Champions Cup meeting with back-to-back champions Toulon at Parc y Scarlets.
The Wales fly-half, who departs for Bath in the summer, kicked two penalties during last weekend’s Pool 3 defeat at Leicester Tigers to become the region’s highest points scorer.
That loss at Welford Road ended the Scarlets’ hopes of reaching the knockout stages and head coach Wayne Pivac has made two changes for the visit of a Toulon side who have already qualified for the quarter-finals.
Liam Williams has failed to recover from a shoulder injury so Steve Shingler comes in at full-back, while Lewis Rawlins replaces Jake Ball in the second row.
We want to put up one hell of a battle. We've got a home stretch that we're trying to hold onto at the moment. The boys are very keen to do well.
Wayne Pivac
The Scarlets are unbeaten at home in Europe this season, although they have lost their last three games against French opponents at Parc y Scarlets.
Toulon arrive in south-west Wales on the back of a crushing eight-try victory over Ulster last weekend. The Top 14 side have made just one change to their starting line-up as captain Carl Hayman comes in for Martin Castrogiovanni at tighthead.
Wales international Leigh Halfpenny starts at full-back with Steffon Armitage, who scored a hat-trick against Ulster, continuing at openside flanker.
Toulon were given a stern examination by the Scarlets in round one before running out 28-18 winners, and Pivac is hoping for a similar performance in their final European game of the season.
"We want to go out with a bang in the tournament and we're looking forward to Saturday and putting ourselves up against the best again,” he said.
Scarlets: 15 Steven Shingler, 14 Harry Robinson, 13 Regan King, 12 Scott Williams (c), 11 Hadleigh Parkes, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Aled Davies; 1 Rob Evans, 2 Ryan Elias, 3 Peter Edwards, 4 George Earle, 5 Lewis Rawlins, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 John Barclay, 8 Rob McCusker.
Replacements: 16 Darran Harris, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Jacobie Adriaanse, 19 Sion Bennett, 20 Rory Pitman, 21 Rhodri Williams, 22 Josh Lewis, 23 Kristian Phillips.
Toulon: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Drew Mitchell, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Maxime Mermoz, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde; 1 Xavier Chiocci, 2 Guilhem Guirado, 3 Carl Hayman (c), 4 Romain Taofifenua, 5 Jocelino Suta, 6 Juan Smith, 7 Steffon Armitage, 8 Chris Masoe.
Replacements: 16 Jean-Charles Orioli, 17 Alexandre Menini, 18 Martin Castrogiovanni, 19 Mamuka Gorgodze, 20 Juan Fernandez Lobbe, 21 Rudi Wulf, 22 Eric Escande, 23 Bakkies Botha.
Watch Scarlets v Toulon live on Sky Sports 1 on Saturday from 5.30pm