Connacht hope to bring their A game to bear

Connacht v Llanelli: Curiously, this fixture has rarely gone the way of the home team, until finally the Scarlets beat Connacht at the Racecourse Ground last year.

Before this Connacht, amazingly, were unbeaten on three visits to Stradey Park, but were unable to eclipse the Scarlets in two previous home games.

However, they were both in Dubarry Park, which makes today's game the first time the sides have met in Galway. Connacht's need for a home win is acute as they are marooned at the bottom of the table. Theoretically, catching, say, the Dragons and the Glasgow Warriors and making that play-off spot for the Heineken European Cup is not beyond the bounds of possibility.

For that to happen, however, Connacht have probably to win games like this, even though on paper it appears a tall order. Even without their current Welsh frontliners like Matthew Watkins, Mark Jones, Lee Byrne, Dwayne Peel and Adam Jones - not to mention Simon Easterby - they pack a fair amount of experience.

They have a cutting edge too with Tal Selley, Dafydd James, Barry Davies and the excellent Regan King, an exciting, rangy, ball-running talent, the kind of 25-year-old New Zealand don't normally let go of, even with their surfeit of midfield talent.

The best-placed of the Welsh regions, Llanelli have two games in hand over the four teams above them and are seeking to arrest a run of three defeats in a row, to Edinburgh, Toulouse and Ulster.

Connacht have won their last three games at the Sportsground, against Worcester, Ulster and Montpellier, and won't have another home match until April 14th. They'll need a kinder deal from officials than they've been getting - evidenced by the unequalled tally of 10 yellow cards in 13 games, and to tighten up the most porous defence in the league. Buoyed by five A internationals, to that end they also welcome back Darren Yapp for his first game since November after a calf injury sidelined him for eight matches.

CONNACHT: M Mostyn; D Yapp, A Mailei, K Matthews, C McPhillips; P Warwick, C Keane; R Hogan, J Fogarty, A Clarke; D Gannon, A Farley (capt); J Muldoon, B O'Connor, C Rigney. Replacements: J Merrigan, D McFarland, C Short, M Lacey, T Tierney, D Slemen, M McHugh.

SCARLETS: B Davies; T Selley, D James, R King, D Daniel; M Hercus, C Stuart-Smith; M Madden, A Gravelle, C Dunlea; I Afeaki, A Jones; D Jones, G Thomas, A Popham. Replacements: J Davies, M Rees, V Cooper, G Quinnell, L Davies, G Bowen, G Evans.

Referee: Graeme Hannah (SRU).

Head-to-head: (03-04) (CC q-f) Scarlets 12 Connacht 14; (CL) Connacht 20 Scarlets 25; (CL) Scarlets 33 Connacht 33. (04-05) (CL) Scarlets 21 Connacht 29; (CL) Connacht 11 Scarlets 18. (05-06) (CL) Scarlets 25 Connacht 17.

Leading try scorers: Connacht - Conor McPhillips 4. Llanelli - Barry Davies, Lee Byrne, Matthew Watkins 3 each.

Leading scorers: Connacht - Paul Warwick 64. Llanelli - Mike Hercus 42.

Forecast: Llanelli to win.

Connacht v Llanelli

Sportsground, today, 2.30