Scarlets v Racing 92: Champions Cup preview
Last Updated: 21/11/15 5:59pm
Scarlets captain Ken Owens makes a return from injury to lead his side in their first home game of the European Rugby Champions Cup campaign against Racing 92 on Saturday, live on Sky Sports 5 HD (Red Button) from 5.15pm.
Head coach Wayne Pivac has made three changes to the side that lost at Northampton last weekend with captain Owens returning to the front row alongside Phil John who comes in for Rob Evans.
The only change in the backline is at fly-half with Dan Jones handed his first Champions Cup start.
The replacements bench includes Samson Lee, Dylan Evans, newcomer Michael Collins and Steffan Evans, who makes a return from an elbow dislocation.
Pivac said: "Following last week's result what is a comfort to us is that we all feel we're not too far off. We've made steady progress and that's what we're trying to do each week. I think we're heading in the right direction.
"The first two games are vital in this tournament and it's important that we get some points on the board early or otherwise we're chasing the pack.
"The fact that we didn't get four points last weekend puts more significance on this game. This evening's game is very much a must win situation.
"We're expecting a big battle up front from Racing 92 and having a couple of players coming back from injury is good. We'll be slightly stronger than last week."
Scarlets: 15 Aled Thomas, 14 Michael Tagicakibau, 13 Gareth Owen, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 DTH van der Merwe; 10 Dan Jones, 9 Gareth Davies; 1 Phil John, 2 Ken Owens (c), 3 Peter Edwards, 4 Jake Ball, 5 Maselno Paulino, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 James Davies, 8 John Barclay.
Replacements: 16. Emyr Phillips, 17. Dylan Evans, 18. Samson Lee, 19. Tom Price, 20. Lewis Rawlins, 21. Aled Davies, 22. Mike Collins, 23. Steff Evans.
Racing 92: 15 Johannes Goosen; 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Marc Andreu; 10 Remi Tales, 9 Maxime Machenaud; 1 Julien Brugnaut, 2 Dimitri Szarzewski (c), 3 Cedate Gomes Sa, 4 Luke Charteris, 5 Francois van der Merwe, 6 Bernard Le Roux, 7 Wenceslas Lauret, 8 Chris Masoe
Replacements:16 Camille Chat, 17 Eddy Ben Arous, 18 Ben Tameifuna, 19 Thibault Dubarry, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Mike Phillips, 22 Juan Imhoff, 23 Brice Dulin.
Watch Scarlets v Racing 92 live on Sky Sports 5 HD (on the Red Button) on Saturday from 5.15pm.