BBC Sportrugbyunionwelsh

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Related BBC sites

Page last updated at 11:16 GMT, Sunday, 12 December 2010

Scarlets worry over Stephen Jones & Matthew Rees

Stephen Jones worries Scarlets and Wales fans as he departs with a first-half injury
Stephen Jones' knee injury will trouble both the Scarlets and Wales

The Scarlets' joy at their vital 35-27 bonus-point Heineken Cup win over Treviso was tempered by injury concerns over Stephen Jones and Matthew Rees.

Wales fly-half Jones seems the biggest worry after lasting just 18 minutes before leaving the pitch with a knee ligament problem.

"It will take 24 to 48 hours to have an accurate assessment," said Scarlets coach Nigel Davies after the game.

National captain Rees went off after 62 minutes with abductor muscle trouble.

The Scarlets will be desperate to have the pair available for next week's reverse fixture in Italy.

But - having lost to Treviso at the Stadio Monigo in the Magners League this season - they will need to be at the top of their game.

The Llanelli-based region lie joint second with Perpignan on 10 points in Heineken Cup pool five, with Leicester on 11 points.

But the Scarlets have major injury concerns, notably at tight-head prop with Deacon Manu, Rhys Thomas and Peter Edwards all on the casualty list, the Welsh side having been linked with Scotland and British and Irish Lions prop Euan Murray, who left Northampton last week.

Wing George North (left shoulder), centre Jon Davies (foot), wing Andy Fenby (groin), second row Lou Reed (leg) and flanker Dafydd Jones (shoulder) are also on the Parc y Scarlets injury list, while number eight David Lyons (shoulder) and wing Lee Williams (shoulder) missed Saturday's Treviso win.

The Stephen Jones injury will also concern the Wales management, but Nigel Davies says people will have to show patience.

"It's probably a tweak to the ligaments but we don't really know," said Davies.

He's walking around, so that's a good sign

Nigel Davies on Stephen Jones' injury

"In the next couple of days we'll have a clear assessment. He's walking around, so that's a good sign.

"We will have it scanned after the swelling has gone down."

Davies said he was not satisfied with his side's performance despite scoring four tries to Treviso's three.

"They are a quality side," said Davies. "We know only too well about that because we have played them in the Magners League.

"If you give them an opportunity they are dangerous and we are disappointed with our game without the ball.

"When we did look after the ball we scored tries. It would have been nice to have finished the match off at half-time .

"We blew some great opportunities and overall we are disappointed with our performance, but having said that we know we can get better.

"It was imperative we won and a bonus point was important in the group we are in. We set out what we wanted to achieve but we also realise our performance wasn't great."

Treviso coach Franco Smith said he was disappointed not to get anything out of the match.

"I'm gutted because we are looking for a win in the Heineken Cup, but in general there are plenty of positives," he said.

"I was disappointed the way we defended early on. We were allowing too many offloads and we missed too many tackles.

"But I'm pleased we stayed in there after half-time. At the end we could have had two bonus points.

"We are realistic at Treviso though - we are competing at this level.

"We beat them in the Magners League and they must have been very cross and very upset still. We knew they were going to be up for it."



Print Sponsor


see also
Scarlets 35-27 Benetton Treviso
11 Dec 10 |  Welsh
Euro prop issue for Scarlets boss
09 Dec 10 |  Scarlets
BBC Sport Wales coverage
03 Oct 11 |  Wales
Heineken Cup
11 Apr 07 |  Rugby Union


related bbc links:

related internet links:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites