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Snyman and Earle
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<blockquote data-quote="dullonien" data-source="post: 549803" data-attributes="member: 13739"><p>Ahhh, the LV= cup and severely depleted Pro12 games. That doesn't exactly tell us much, otherwise Draggs would currently be claiming that the Dragons are world beaters. If you think there has been anything positive about the Scarlets front five this season, other than the emergence of a probable future star in Samson Lee, then I think it might be you who is sadly deluded.</p><p></p><p>If you ask anyone here, they'll tell you that I follow the Scarlets closely, as I do all the regions. I often have good things to say about the Scarlets players and always hope for them to do well, but the Scarlets recruitments lately have been decidedly sub-par, despite the hype surrounding them pre-season, and during the beginning of the season when the Irish teams were missing all their big players. The Scarlets seem to have recruited based on stereotypes, it appears that in their minds SA players = big and knarly, yet they've ended up with 2 second rows who are no better in the tight than Day and Reed, an Argentinian second-row/back-rower who's about as useful as a paper bag, and a South African prop who can't scrummage.</p><p></p><p>There is some promising players in the Scarlets pack, namely Rhodri Jones, Samson Lee, Rob Evans, Shaun Hopkins, Ken Owens, Kirby Myhill, Kieran Murphy & Daniel Thomas. Rob McCusker and Turnbull looked promising a few years ago, but look likely to fall slightly short of the mark. The rest should be no better than 3rd or 4th choice at a Welsh region. This leaves the pack with no quality experienced players, and the Scarlets hoping that some of those youngsters can step-up. This leaves you with youngsters like Samson Lee being 1st choice, and whilst doing remarkably well for his age, taking a bit of a battering against the likes of the Ospreys, Clermont and Leinster. He should be 2nd choice behind a strong scrummaging tighthead, learning his trade, not being thrown in at the deep-end and waiting to see if he sinks or swims, especially in such a specialist and technical position as tighthead prop.</p><p></p><p>If I had to pick a Scarlets team with only players that are realistically strong enough to win the HC in each position it would look like this:</p><p></p><p>01</p><p>02 Ken Owens</p><p>03</p><p>04</p><p>05</p><p>06 Aaron Shingler</p><p>07</p><p>08</p><p></p><p>09 Tavis Knoyle / Gareth Davies / Aled Davies (When they can figure out the pecking order)</p><p>10 Rhys Priestland (again with severe questionmarks)</p><p>11</p><p>12 Scott Williams</p><p>13 Jon Davies (what a great distributing centre partership! \end sarcasm)</p><p>14 George North </p><p>15 Liam Williams (reservations surrounding his aerial abilities)</p><p></p><p>16 Matthew Rees</p><p>17 Rhodri Jones (doubts over his scrummaging)</p><p>18 Samson Lee (a bit early, but not far off)</p><p>19 Josh Turnbull, or one of Timani, Earle, Snyman, Kelly or Ball might just be good enough on the bench</p><p>20 Keiran Murphy</p><p>21 Another one of those scrum halves mentioned above</p><p>22 Gareth Owen (if he can return to form, biased selection!)</p><p>23 At a push Andy Fenby</p><p></p><p>That's a lot of holes. When more of those youngsters develop in the pack, then there might be fewer holes, but it'd be a start if the Scarlets just sourced some no nonsense forwards that could stand up to the nasty bullies. If Exeter can manage it then the Scarlets should be able to as well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="dullonien, post: 549803, member: 13739"] Ahhh, the LV= cup and severely depleted Pro12 games. That doesn't exactly tell us much, otherwise Draggs would currently be claiming that the Dragons are world beaters. If you think there has been anything positive about the Scarlets front five this season, other than the emergence of a probable future star in Samson Lee, then I think it might be you who is sadly deluded. If you ask anyone here, they'll tell you that I follow the Scarlets closely, as I do all the regions. I often have good things to say about the Scarlets players and always hope for them to do well, but the Scarlets recruitments lately have been decidedly sub-par, despite the hype surrounding them pre-season, and during the beginning of the season when the Irish teams were missing all their big players. The Scarlets seem to have recruited based on stereotypes, it appears that in their minds SA players = big and knarly, yet they've ended up with 2 second rows who are no better in the tight than Day and Reed, an Argentinian second-row/back-rower who's about as useful as a paper bag, and a South African prop who can't scrummage. There is some promising players in the Scarlets pack, namely Rhodri Jones, Samson Lee, Rob Evans, Shaun Hopkins, Ken Owens, Kirby Myhill, Kieran Murphy & Daniel Thomas. Rob McCusker and Turnbull looked promising a few years ago, but look likely to fall slightly short of the mark. The rest should be no better than 3rd or 4th choice at a Welsh region. This leaves the pack with no quality experienced players, and the Scarlets hoping that some of those youngsters can step-up. This leaves you with youngsters like Samson Lee being 1st choice, and whilst doing remarkably well for his age, taking a bit of a battering against the likes of the Ospreys, Clermont and Leinster. He should be 2nd choice behind a strong scrummaging tighthead, learning his trade, not being thrown in at the deep-end and waiting to see if he sinks or swims, especially in such a specialist and technical position as tighthead prop. If I had to pick a Scarlets team with only players that are realistically strong enough to win the HC in each position it would look like this: 01 02 Ken Owens 03 04 05 06 Aaron Shingler 07 08 09 Tavis Knoyle / Gareth Davies / Aled Davies (When they can figure out the pecking order) 10 Rhys Priestland (again with severe questionmarks) 11 12 Scott Williams 13 Jon Davies (what a great distributing centre partership! \end sarcasm) 14 George North 15 Liam Williams (reservations surrounding his aerial abilities) 16 Matthew Rees 17 Rhodri Jones (doubts over his scrummaging) 18 Samson Lee (a bit early, but not far off) 19 Josh Turnbull, or one of Timani, Earle, Snyman, Kelly or Ball might just be good enough on the bench 20 Keiran Murphy 21 Another one of those scrum halves mentioned above 22 Gareth Owen (if he can return to form, biased selection!) 23 At a push Andy Fenby That's a lot of holes. When more of those youngsters develop in the pack, then there might be fewer holes, but it'd be a start if the Scarlets just sourced some no nonsense forwards that could stand up to the nasty bullies. If Exeter can manage it then the Scarlets should be able to as well. [/QUOTE]
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