Scarlets v Leicester: Teams

Wales fly-half Stephen Jones returns to the Scarlets' starting line-up for Saturday's crucial Heineken Cup Pool Five clash with Leicester.

Jones, who returns from injury to start for first time after being sidelined for over a month, has urged his Scarlets side to play smart rugby.

The Lions star believes the Scarlets cannot get wrapped up in the emotion of a classic Anglo-Welsh confrontation and drawn into a physical battle at Parc y Scarlets.

"The big challenge for us is to keep thinking," Jones told the Western Mail.

"We cannot let our emotions get in the way of our gameplan.

"If we get into a physical and simplistic battle with Leicester, we are going to come off second best."

Leicester head to west Wales knowing that defeat would leave them hovering perilously close to making a pool-stage exit.

The Tigers are currently two points behind the Scarlets at the top of the pool, but Perpignan are lurking just one point further back and remain strong quarter-final contenders.

Murphy out

Scott Hamilton and Boris Stankovich return to the Leicester squad, the former having missed the last two fixtures after returning to New Zealand for his wedding.

Hamilton comes in at full-back after an ankle injury ruled out club captain Geordan Murphy.

Meanwhile, loosehead prop Stankovich is included among the replacements after recovering from a facial injury.

Louis Deacon, who was recalled to the England squad this week ahead of the Six Nations Championship, will captain the team in Murphy's absence.

The inclusions of Hamilton and Stankovich represents the only alteration to the squad since last Saturday's win over Northampton Saints in the Aviva Premiership.

"We're really disappointed that Geordan suffered an ankle injury last weekend because he was really coming into form and he is a big player for us, but Scott has played a lot of games for us at full-back and his return is very timely. It's good to get Boris back too," director of rugby Richard Cockerill said.

"Scarlets are top of the pool and they are second in the Magners League this season, and that says they are consistently pretty good. They have some very dangerous players and some good experience in their side.

"We are going quite well too. We have won our last two away games, against London Irish and Exeter, which are hard places to go, and we had a good win against Northampton who have been going well all season."

Scarlets: 15 Rhys Priestland, 14 Morgan Stoddart, 13 Regan King, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Tavis Knoyle, 8 David Lyons, 7 Josh Turnbull, 6 Rob McCusker, 5 Vernon Cooper, 4 Lou Reed, 3 Simon Gardner, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Iestyn Thomas.
Replacements:16 Emyr Phillips, 17 Rhodri Jones, 18 Phil John, 19 Jonny Fa'amatuainu, 20 Ben Morgan, 21 Richard Pugh, 22 Martin Roberts, 23 Gareth Maule,

Leicester Tigers: 15 Scott Hamilton, 14 Matt Smith, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Anthony Allen, 11 Alesana Tuilagi, 10 Toby Flood, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Jordan Crane, 7 Craig Newby, 6 Thomas Waldrom, 5 George Skivington, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Martin Castrogiovanni, 2 George Chuter, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements:16 Rob Hawkins, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Dan Cole, 19 Ed Slater, 20 Steve Mafi, 21 James Grindal, 22 Jeremy Staunton, 23 Horacio Agulla,