Owens hopes buzz in Wales helps electrify the Scarlets
KEN Owens acknowledges Wales’ four regions have struggled to trouble Europe’s elite, but he hopes the feelgood factor from the Six Nations might allow his Scarlets side to buck the trend this season.
Hooker Owens was a vital figure for Wayne Pivac’s Wales as they completed a remarkable turnaround from a poor 2020 to win the 2021 Championship last month.
Key Welsh figures Owens, Gareth Davies, Jonathan Davies, Liam Williams and Leigh Halfpenny are all involved for the Scarlets in their Champions Cup last-16 tie with Sale Sharks today.
“I think there is definitely a buzz around Welsh rugby which we’ve seen before,” said Owens, who had a superb Six Nations and is playing some of the best rugby of his career at 34.
“At the Scarlets we do have a large contingent of international players and there has been huge confidence gathered from the Six Nations.
“I’d like to think the confidence, buzz and feelgood factor of Wales winning the Six Nations will spill over.
“It’s bouncing around the squad here with the boys who have come back from Wales, but also the boys who have been here all along. Qualifying for Europe has given the squad a huge boost.
“There is definitely a feelgood factor here, but it all comes down to Sunday and producing a performance. We need to make sure we’re at the top of our game.”
Wales have won three Six Nations Grand Slams and two more Championship titles since 2008, but success for their domestic sides has been a lot harder to come by.
Asked why that is the case, Owens said: “If I knew the exact answer I wouldn’t be sitting here, I’d be running one of the regions!
“When you look at the sides who regularly do well in European competition, they have massive strength in depth and consistency in selection.
“That’s generally gathered over a four or five-year period, but if we’re honest the Welsh regions haven’t had that. We’ve had one-off seasons.
“There is not one answer as to why that is, but it’s probably down to a lot of inconsistency. If you look at the Scarlets, we’ve had a couple of years where we’ve done well in the PRO14, took that step into Europe, but then didn’t keep that continuity and lost some players.
“It was similar with the Ospreys in the early part of the decade. Strength in depth and squad consistency and continuity over a four or five-year period are big things.
“If you look at Leinster and Saracens, they’ve had that consistency for ten years and that’s where we need to get to as regions to make that final step.”
Scarlets have a very strong side to face Sale with Williams on the wing and Halfpenny at full-back.
Gareth Davies’ scrumhalf battle with South African World Cup winner Faf de Klerk will go a long way to deciding the game. Jonathan Davies is on the bench. Sale also have Tom Curry back from England duty, but Lood de Jager is absent.
Captain Owens said: “The teams from the Premiership are generally very set-piece orientated and very direct. With Sale’s South African influence, they’re very good at that.
“The quality in our squad is right there – now it’s about delivering.”
JOSH BEAUMONT says Sale Sharks’ ‘band of brothers’ are massively excited by the prospect of a first European Cup quarter-final in 15 years.
Not since the days of Mark Cueto, Steve Hanley, Jason Robinson and Charlie Hodgson have Sale been in a knockout fixture like this – and they haven’t even won a game yet!
Sale lost 26-14 to Toulon and by a single point at home to Edinburgh in the first two rounds of this season’s Champions Cup, but still managed to be among the top-ranked 16 teams when the competition was forced into a restructure due to Covid.
Victory over Scarlets today will see them La Rochelle in the last eight.
No wonder Sharks boss, Alex Sanderson, joked that he felt like he had Willy Wonka’s golden ticket in the build-up to the clash at Parc y Scarlets.
“Having lost the two group games, in normal circumstances our tournament would be over,” acknowledged loose forward Josh Beaumont, 29.
“We have got this opportunity now and we want to give our best account of ourselves.
“We are massively excited by being in a Champions Cup knockout game. I’ve been at the club eight/nine years and we have never proceeded past the group stage and it’s a long time since we got to a quarter-final.”
The Sharks have not won a Heineken Cup game outside of England since October 2008, losing 17 of their last 18 away games overall in the competition.
But they go to Wales buoyed by a heroic effort at Wasps last week, when they won despite having a record-equalling four men sent to the sin bin.
Sale have a strong rugby league influence in their coaching ranks in Paul Deacon and Mike Forshaw,
but Beaumont admits playing with 13 men isn’t something they want to do too often, even if it showed what they are all about.
“That 20 minutes where we had to play with 13, we really rallied as a team, which was pleasing,” he said. “We showed what we are made of, and the close bond that we have, and fought for each other which is what you want in those situations.
“We’re fortunate Wasps didn’t play differently to how they did and try and stress us a bit more. Had they done we might have been in a bit more trouble.
“Jean-Luc du Preez talked about the brotherhood we have straight after the game, and I think we showed that in buckets. It’s nice to see it visibly come out on the pitch.”
Scarlets have won three of the past four encounters in this competition and with their Six Nations stars back in the mix, they’ll be favourites to go through.
“They have got a lot of experience in the backline and a lot of quality players and we know we’ll have to be at our best to pull off a result,” said Beaumont.
Meanwhile, Beaumont says he is still getting back up to speed three months into his return from a long injury lay-off. The former Fylde player scored the winner for Sale at Gloucester
in his first game back at the start of January, but his best is yet to come.
“I still feel like I am trying to find my form. It takes a while after such a long lay-off.
“I spoke to Marland Yarde and he said it took him 12-14 games to get back to where he felt he was at his best.
“I still want to improve bits of my game but I am pretty happy with the way I have returned.”