SCARLETS: Costelow could return as Davies reveals eight-week blow for Domachowski

Sam Costelow is available again for the Scarlets, but Nigel Davies has confirmed Corey Domachowski faces around eight weeks on the sidelines.

Costelow missed Saturday’s derby defeat to Cardiff with a head knock sustained in the final pre-season game against Saracens, handing Gareth Anscombe a URC debut at fly-half.

“Sam is fine,” the director of rugby said. “The squad’s starting to look a lot healthier. A lot more competition now as we move forward. I think the next three or four weeks we’ll see us come pretty close to full strength.”

Dan Davis and Johnny Williams are also back in contention, with Taine Plumtree and Fletcher Anderson closing in on returns of their own.

“Taine and Fletcher aren’t far away either, so the squad is becoming a lot more competitive now,” Davies said. “We’ve still got a couple of players to come in, but we’re getting there.”

Eight weeks out for Domachowski

The exception is Domachowski, who was ruled out of the Cardiff game with a chest injury picked up against Saracens and now faces a lengthy absence.

“He’s got a medium-term injury. He’s probably about eight weeks away now from getting back,” Davies said.

“It is a blow. He’s still around the place bringing his energy, which is great, but it’s a blow. He’s had a good pre-season and he was doing a good job. The positive side of that is Kemsley Mathias is now available to us.”

A loan move on the cards at tight-head

Davies also confirmed the region is looking at the loan market to cover at tight-head prop, with Archer Holz and Chris Apoua unavailable.

“We’re looking at that. That’s a constant moving piece right across the squad, but we’ve still got three very good tight-heads in the group and they’re competing hard for the spot,” he said.

“But I think we need to add one as well, because we’re only one injury away from being in a situation. Most teams will carry four to five tight-heads. At the moment we’ve got three, so we just need to bring somebody else in to support that.”

Three into one at fly-half

Costelow’s return gives Davies a selection headache at ten, with Anscombe and teenager Carwyn Leggatt-Jones also in the frame.

“Over the last couple of years Sam has really matured as a player. I think he’s probably in and around the start of his peak in terms of his playing performance,” Davies said.

“It’s great to have him back in competition, but we’ve also got Gareth Anscombe, who brings a huge amount of experience into the environment.

“We’ve also got Carwyn Leggatt-Jones, who’s available moving forward. He’s a real exciting prospect, a ten in a typical west Wales mould. He’s very confident, he’s got a high skill level. So we’ve got real competition in that position.”

Davies was similarly relaxed about where Eddie James fits, the centre having started at 12 against Cardiff.

“He’s capable of playing both. If you asked the Welsh management, they’d probably still see him as the 13,” he said. “The key thing with someone like Eddie is you’ve just got to get him into the game, and you can do that from 12 or 13. As it happened last weekend, we played him at 12 and got him in the game a lot.”

The Scarlets travel to face the Dragons in Newport on Saturday.

Author

Richard Bond

Swansea-based sports journalist.
Twitter: @RichBond00
Email: RichardBond@swanseabaynews.com