Great to see you Liam, just don’t play too well!
LIAM Williams will be a valuable addition to the Saracens squad next season, but Jamie George hopes the fullback will not show exactly why today as they prepare for their “biggest game of the season”.
Taking their unbeaten run in the Champions Cup to record-equalling 13 games after four wins in the first four rounds this season, the reigning champions can book their place for the quarter-finals but a defeat is likely to set up a winner-takes-all clash against Toulon who are eight points behind Sarries and host Sale at the Stade Mayol today.
Scarlets downed the French giants 22-21 in their last European outing so George knows the threat they can pose – starting with Williams whose move to Allianz Park next season was finally confirmed earlier this week.
“It’ll be nice if Liam can wait until after this game to show us how good he is,” George told The
Rugby Paper. “Hopefully we won’t find ourselves underneath our posts thinking ‘that’s why we signed him’. It’s obvious to see that Scarlets are verywell-drilled and have some good operators up front. But they can also run it from anywhere with the likes of Liam or Scott Williams.
“It’s going to be our biggest game of the season because if we win we’re through to the quarterfinals but we’re trying not to put too much pressure on ourselves.
“We haven’t even thought about Toulon next week because our focus is to beat the Scarlets first.”
With the Six Nations looming large, too, the next two games will provide George an opportunity to show England boss Eddie Jones he has what it takes to step in for Dylan Hartley whose six-week ban restricts him to just one Anglo-Welsh Cup-tie before France arrive at Twickenham on February 4.
Dominant performances in the next seven days would help George in his quest especially as they would come against Wales’ starting hooker Ken Owens and France captain Guilhem Guirado. George added: “It’s a big couple of weeks for me because of the players I’ll
be facing directly. Ken is a very good player. He’s the captain and he’s a talisman for Scarlets.
“I do as much homework as I can on the opposition front row as well as our lineout calls. That way I go in with a clear mind and can focus on myself.
“Recently I’ve also tried to get my hands on the ball more because we’re missing the Vunipola brothers. It’s quite nice because we don’t usually get that many opportunities when the two are on the field.
“I’m not thinking about the fact that Dylan isn’t playing or anyone else because you can get sidetracked. The same happened with Schalk Brits here when I was coming through and the one thing I learned is that you can only control what you’re doing.
“As frustrating as it might have been at the time, I just focused on playing well when I had the chance and hoped the coaches picked me to start.
“It’s the same now. Thinking about whether I’m going to start for England in the Six Nations is only going to distract me from what’s important right now and that’s beating the Scarlets in Llanelli.”
Chris Wyles will make his 50th European appearances for Sarries today and he is joined in the back three by the fit-again Chris Ashton.
Alex Lozowski takes over from Alex Goode who picked up an ankle injury. Nick Tompkins replaces the banned Brad Barritt in midfield with Schalk Burger coming into the side at openside flanker in the place of Kelly Brown.
Liam and Scott Williams both return to the Scarlets back-line while an all-international front row of Rob Evans, Ken Owens and Samson Lee lead the pack which sees Irish youngster Tadhg Beirne and Aaron Shingler both making returns from injury.