‘If Liverpool can do it, then Scarlets can’
SCARLETS have been urged to ‘do a Liverpool’ on Leinster when the sides clash in the European Champions Cup semi-final in Lansdowne Road next Saturday.
Leinster are widely expected to triumph in the familiar surrounds of the Dublin 4 venue but Scarlets legend Scott Quinnell believes Wayne Pivac’s visitors are primed to cause an upset — just as Liverpool did when dumping Premier League champions Manchester City out of the Champions League last week.
‘We’ve just seen in football how an unfancied team in red beat a fancied one in blue,’ said the 55-times capped former Wales and Lions No8. ‘If that can happen in the Champions League, then it can happen in the Champions Cup.
‘Leinster are one of the best in Europe, if not the best, but then they said that about Manchester City. Liverpool were the underdogs and look what they did to them. So why not dream?’
Pro12 champions Scarlets stunned Leinster at the RDS in the semi-final of the league last year before blowing away Munster in the Lansdowne Road final and Quinnell says there will be no fear factor coming to Dublin.
‘The Scarlets have been on the up for a while. Their action game is brilliant and they will come flying out of the traps against Leinster,’ he predicted.
‘In sport there are occasions when you look at an impressive team on the up and you think: “It’s your time”.’
Both teams suffered disappointing Pro14 losses at the weekend, the Scarlets well beaten away to Edinburgh and Leinster suffering a shock loss to Treviso — the first league win by an Italian side in Dublin in 18 attempts.
However, the team selections for next weekend will be radically different with a host of internationals poised to return to both line-ups.
Leinster will provide an update today on the availability of flanker Seán O’Brien, withdrawn after the first half in the RDS on Saturday night.
Munster are back in their Limerick base following their successful two-week trip to South Africa, which yielded victories over Southern Kings and Cheetahs.
There are injury concerns over back-row Jack O’Donoghue, scrumhalf James Hart and centre Dan Goggin, with an update due tomorrow.
Racing 92, Munster’s opponents in next Sunday’s Champions Cup semi-final in Bordeaux, played yesterday, going down 42-27 in Toulouse.
The Parisiens remain in third best place in the Top14, just behind Toulouse on points difference.
While it was a Racing selection that featured a clutch of internationals, it was still decided to rest several frontliners ahead of next weekend’s showdown in Bordeaux, including former Munster second row Donnacha Ryan, one of Racing’s standout players this season.