Injuries have forced Peel’s hand to reshuffle his line-up for Saturday’s clash against his former team.
Wales wing Tom Rogers picked up a knee injury against the Sharks and is set to miss the remainder of the season giving Ryan Conbeer the opportunity to play his last match in front of home support coming in on the left wing with Tomi Lewis switching to the right. The rest of the back division is unchanged.
There are three changes in the pack. In the front row, Harri O’Connor gets the nod at tight-head prop and packs down alongside skipper Ryan Elias and Kemsley Mathias.
Sam Lousi is ruled out with a rib issue so Jac Price comes into the second row to partner his former Wales U20s team-mate Morgan Jones.
In the back row, a hamstring injury rules out Vaea Fifita, so Carwyn Tuipulotu, who made a big impact off the bench against the Sharks, starts at number eight. Dan Davis and Taine Plumtree make up the rest of the breakaway trio.
On the bench, outgoing prop Wyn Jones, South African flanker Jarrod Taylor and Wales back Ioan Lloyd returns from injury to take their places in the match-day 23.
Head coach Dwayne Peel speaking on the weekend’s match said:
“Ulster are in the hunt for the play-offs and they will come here with that in mind so it is going to be a hard challenge but we have steadily been improving.
“There was a good feeling at the end of the Sharks game and I thought we played some good stuff in that game. It is important we continue that momentum.”
Scarlets team to play Ulster:
15 Ioan Nicholas; 14 Tomi Lewis, 13 Johnny Williams, 12 Eddie James, 11 Ryan Conbeer; 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Gareth Davies
1 Kemsley Mathias, 2 Ryan Elias (captain), 3 Harri O’Connor, 4 Morgan Jones, 5 Jac Price,
6 Taine Plumtree, 7 Dan Davis, 8 Carwyn Tuipulotu.
Replacements:
16 Shaun Evans, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Sam Wainwright, 19 Jarrod Taylor, 20 Ben Williams, 21 Kieran Hardy, 22 Ioan Lloyd, 23 Scott Williams.
[Lead image: Scarlets Rugby]
