Scarlets set to add Sam to boost No.9 ranks

THE Scarlets are poised to add Scotland international Sam Hidalgo-Clyne to their ranks as a replacement for departing Wales international Aled Davies.

The 24-year-old is set to become the latest addition to Wayne Pivac’s squad for 2018-19 having reportedly turned down an extension offer with his current club Edinburgh.

Capped nine times for his country, Hidalgo-Clyne’s Test ambitions have been blocked in recent seasons with the experience of Greig Laidlaw as well as Glasgow duo Ali Price and Henry Pyrgos being preferred by national coaches Vern Cotter and Gregor Townsend.

However, Hidalgo-Clyne quality playmaker.

He has been in impressive form during Edinburgh’s push towards the Guinness PRO14 play-offs and starred in his side’s recent 52-14 hammering of a second-string Scarlets at Murrayfield.

He will join an impressive pool of scrum-halves at Parc y Scarlets, headed by Wales’s first-choice Gareth Davies.

Fellow Wales international Aled Davies is making the short trip across the Loughor to join the Ospreys, but the Scarlets also have Jonathan Evans, who has proven an excellent acquisition over the last couple of seasons following his move from Bath.

As well as Hidalgo-Clyne, the Scarlets are also set to welcome back former academy scrum-half Kieran Hardy following a spell with English Championship side Jersey.

The Scarlets have been busy in the transfer market this season as they look to counter the departure of key players as well as the expected absence of a number of Wales internationals in the buildup to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.

They are losing influential performers like Tadhg Beirne (Munster), John Barclay (Edinburgh), Scott Williams and Aled Davies (both Ospreys), but they have recruited strongly, having already signed Blade Thomson (Hurricanes), Kieron Fonotia (Ospreys) as well as the Cheetahs duo Clayton Blommetjies and Uzair Casseim. is a