By Lestyn - 26/09/03
September 26 2003

After last week's disappointing start to the Celtic cup, this weekend sees a welcome return to Celtic League action. Round 3's game of the week is when the Warriors face the Scarlets as first meets second at Stradey park. Swansea has it's first taste of regional rugby as the Ospreys host Munster.

Friday's games

Scarlets v Warriors (7.05)

Can the Warriors put in a worse display than last week? The defeat against Glasgow may only prove to be a one off, but it has left Lyn Howell's with more questions than answers. 

With no credible alternative to Kev Morgan at full back and an inexperienced centre partnership, but more worrying an inability to keep hold of the ball for longer than two phases, the Warriors will have to show a marked improvement to pull off a result at Stradey Park.

In contrast the Scarlets had an easy ride in hammering the Dragons, but have received a blow in losing Chris Wyatt to Wales, but with Adam Jones settling in so well, the lock may not be missed that much.  But with Scott Quinnell still absent they do look a bit light weight up front (although depending on a fitness test he may replace Wyatt).

It's good to see Mike Phillip's being given the nod at scrum half, after last weeks cameo display, it will be interesting to see whether or not he can keep it up for the full eighty minutes.

Not to forget this is a battle between the top two in the Celtic League, even if it is early days. Hopefully this game should live up to it's billing and not be as scrappy as the other all Welsh affairs we had to put up with so far.

Prediction: Scarlets to sneak it.

Scarlets: B Davies; R Rees, M Watkins, L Davies (capt), T Selley; G Bowen, M Phillips; D Maddocks, A Gravelle, J Davies, V Cooper, A Jones, AN Other, E Lewis, I Boobyer.
Replacements: P John, R Williams, B Griffiths, G Williams, D Burn, C Thomas, S Finau.

Warriors: TBC

Borders v Blues (7.30)

A must win game for both sides, even after the win over Connacht Dai Young's team will still be expected to win up in Scotland over the league's whipping boy's. 

The week off may have had it's positives for the Blues due to their seemingly never ending injury crisis, but I can't help thinking that they may have lost any momentum from a much improved showing over a side that in the past would have tripped them up.

But it has given both Ryan Powell and Craig Morgan time to return from injury in time. Powell however only makes the bench with Andy Moore in such good from.

The other Andy Moore joins fellow underachieving lock Craig Quinnell on the sidelines, due to a hamstring strain. Promising youngster James Malpas continues at number eight, but somehow Robin Appleyard clings onto the number six shirt ahead of both Sowden- Taylor and Nathan Thomas. Thomas for some reason is yet to start a game yet this season.

Borders have been completely dire so far and it's hard based on the ease at which they were hammered by both the Warriors and Edinburgh, to see them pulling the result off.

Prediction: Blues by 10+

Borders: Gareth Morton, Scott Paterson, Jono Stuart, Kevin Utterson (captain), Andy Turnbull, Clark Laidlaw, Gary Armstrong, Kelvin Todd, Ross Ford, Craig Dunlea, Scott MacLeod, Colin Stewart, Andy Rennick, Dan Kane, Campbell Feather. Replacements: Steve Scott, Geoff Cross, Doddie Weir, Tony Walker, Iain Fairley, Calum MacRae, Craig Moir.

Blues: Donavan van Vuuren; Nick Walne, Jamie Robinson, Matt Allen, Craig Morgan; Nick Robinson, Andrew Moore; Kenneth Fourie, Andrew Lewis (capt), Ben Evans, Dan McShane, Jim Brownrigg, Rob Appleyard, James Malpas, Dan Baugh.
Replacements: John Yapp, Leyton Phillips, Chris Stamatakis, Nathan Thomas, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Ryan Powell, Nick Macleod.

Ulster v Dragons (7.35)

Fortress Ravenhill would be the last place Mike Ruddock would want to take his demoralised Dragons to, but in truth after last weeks shocker in the cup where they gave up with thirty minutes left on the clock, makes any game look daunting at the moment.

Although there may just be some light at the end of the tunnel for the region, with Ruddock finally giving into temptation and shuffling his back line around. 

It will be a relief to many to see Andy Marinos move back to 12 and Nathan Brew outside him in the centre and with both Arasa and Kevin James debuting on the wings, we should see a bit more pace for once. Also with regular Ben Breeze staring ahead of Brett Davey at full back, it's clear the emphasis is going to be very much on attack.

After a disappointing start to the season, away at the Ospreys, Ulster recovered well to thump Glasgow 33-5 at Ravenhill and all the signs point to another win for the Irish side by a similar margin.

Prediction: Ulster by 20+

Ulster: Cunningham; Young, Constable, Stewart, Howe; Larkin, Campbell; McCormack, Sexton, Young, Mustchin, Frost, McWhirter, Ward (capt), Wilson.
Replacements: Shields, Shawe, McCullough, Best, Spee, Mallon, Topping.

Dragons: Ben Breeze; Gerald Arasa, Nathan Brew, Andy Marinos (capt), Kevin James; Craig Warlow, Rhodri Jones; Adam Black, Steven Jones, Chris Anthony, Ian Gough, Peter Sidoli, Rhys Oakley, Jason Forster, Shawn Van Rensburg.
Replacements: David Pattison, Keiran Crawford, Luke Charteris, Jamie Ringer, Stephen Winn, Lee Jarvis, Gareth Baber.

Other Games: Glasgow v Connacht, 7.30. Leinster v Edinburgh, 7.30

Saturday's games

Ospreys v Munster (5.30, Swansea)

St.Helens hosts it's first ever game of regional rugby, and the signs are good for a decent sized crowd after a week of impressive marketing involving the regions unofficial logo (a demon like Osprey face I've been told) being put up around the area.

Anyway on the pitch the Ospreys looked very affective in attack last week against Leinster, however in defence the Irish side were ghosting through tackles. The front five still looked light weight and they may struggle against the likes of Munsters new Aussie signing from the super 12 David Pusey.

But in the backs Munster still look very poor, with forgotten man Jason Jones-Hughes struggling to settle in at inside centre. Gibbs and co should make easy work of the Irish side, but I still don't think Henson should be at 15, as they lack a creative outisde half in Shaun Connor.

Prediction: Ospreys by 15

Ospreys: Gavin Henson; Dave Tiueti, James Storey, Scott Gibbs (capt), Elvis Seveali'l; Shaun Connor, Andy Williams; Paul James, Barry Williams, Andrew Millward, Andy Newman, Luke Tait, Gavin Thomas, James Bater, Nathan Bonner-Evans.
Replacements: Gareth Morris, Adrian Durston, Ricky Richards, Chris Wells, Steve Tandy, Lyndon Bateman, Cai Griffiths.

Munster: J Staunton; M Lawlor, M Mullins, J Jones-Hughes, S Payne; C O'Sullivan, E Reddan; S Kerr, J Flannery, M Cahill; E Halvey, D Pusey; D Leamy, D Wallace, J Williams.
Replacements: F Roche/A Long, J Danaher, T Hogan, C McMahon, S Keogh, M Prendergast, M McPhail, D Crotty.