 | HEINEKEN CUP QUARTER-FINAL |
Stradey Park, Llanelli
Friday 9 April
Kick-off: 1945 BST
The Scarlets are able to name a full-strength side for the Heineken Cup quarter-final visit of Biarritz.
Vernon Cooper skippers the team, with Chris Wyatt named ahead of Adam Jones at lock and club captain Leigh Davies fit to make the bench.
Biarritz name current French stars Serge Betsen, Thomas Lievremont, Dimitri Yachvili, Julien Peyrelongue and Nicolas Brusque.
They are without centre Guillaume Bousses after he tore knee ligaments.
Australian Marc Stcherbina, who would have replaced Bousses, is also out with an injury so Argentine Martin Gaitan takes his place alongside John Isaac in the centre. Scarlets coach Nigel Davies is wary of the power of French outfit.
"Biarritz are a huge challenge, even with home advantage," said Davies.
"They have an extremely physical pack, a most effective line-out and like to turn rucks into mauls, meaning they get a lot of penalties."
Biarritz scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili says it's "now or never" for his side and they are ready for the challenge. "We have reached the quarter-finals twice before but now we are desperate to go further," said the scrum-half who starred in France's Grand Slam-sealing win over England last month.
"We are motivated and ambitious and I think that our vital pool victory at Sale in January was a key turning point in our fortunes.
"We then went on and played very well in our match at Biarritz against Leinster, but it is really this knock-out match at Llanelli which will enable us to see how good we are.
"I think we have got a good chance because this Biarritz team has never been as good as it is this season."
If the Scarlets are to succeed, Davies says his side must make full use of the Stradey Park factor.
"We are going to have a massive capacity crowd at Stradey and it is vital we give them something to cheer about early on," he said.
"We didn't manage to do that in last season's quarter-final against Perpignan. "We didn't give the fans anything to hold onto in the early minutes and Stradey was a pretty quiet place - we cannot afford that to happen again."
Scarlets: B Davies; G Evans, M Taylor, M Watkins, S Finau; S Jones, D Peel; I Thomas, R McBryde, J Davies, V Cooper (capt), C Wyatt, D Jones, S Easterby, S Quinnell.
Replacements: J Thiel, A Gravelle, A Jones, D Hodges, M Phillips, G Bowen, L Davies.
Biarritz: N Brusque; P Bidabe, M Gaitan, J Isaac, J Marlu; J Peyrelongue, D Yachvili; P Balan, J-M Gonzalez, D Avril, H Manent, D Couzinet, S Betsen, O Tonita, T Lievremont (capt).
Replacements: J Campo, M Fitzgerald, S Puleoto, O Nauroy, D Chouchan or C Milheres, P Bernat-Salles, L Mazas.
Referee: Chris White (England).
MMIX
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This Biarritz team has never been as good as it is this season 
