Scarred Saints turn fury on Scarlets

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS will try to pick up the pieces from their last-gasp Thomond Park defeat last weekend when they face Scarlets tonight at Franklin’s Gardens (8pm) but Jim Mallinder admitted the scars have not yet healed.

The English Premiership side left Limerick last Saturday night as victims of Munster’s thrilling late 23-21 win, with director of rugby Mallinder also acknowledging that those painful memories of Ronan O’Gara’s 85th-minute drop goal will help motivate his players in tonight’s Pool 1 round two clash.

“Games like last Saturday’s don’t disappear from your mind straight away, but you learn very quickly in this game to move on,” Mallinder said after naming an unchanged side from the one that started against Munster.

“You have to move on to the next game, which for us is Friday night’s game against the Scarlets.

“The Heineken Cup is a tough competition and we’re in a tough pool. The Scarlets showed with their [31-23] win over Castres that they deserve to be treated with respect. They’ve got some exciting backs and a dynamic set of forwards who are very competitive at the breakdown and will ask lots of questions of us at the set piece.

“But myself and the other coaches have been very pleased with the reaction of our players in training this week. We know we have been playing well and everyone has been positive in their attitude towards Friday’s game.”

Scarlets’ head of rugby Nigel Davies welcomes back Wales World Cup fly-half Rhys Priestland to his starting line-up in one of three changes from the XV which began the home victory over Castres in Llanelli last weekend.

Priestland, injured during Wales’s run to the semi-finals, was a second-half replacement for Stephen Jones last Saturday and he relegates the veteran Lions out-half to the bench tonight, with Davies also replacing scrum-half Tavis Knoyle with Gareth Davies while the third switch sees Tonga’s Sione Tamani replace Dominic Day at lock.