Ken Owens forced into major positional switch for Scarlets

Ken Owens has earned 60 test caps for Wales and the British and Irish Lions in the middle of the front row but this weekend the 32-year-old will pack down at the back of the scrum for Scarlets.

Owens has been named at number 8 as the Scarlets host the Dragons at Parc y Scarlets looking to rebound from their 34-5 defeat by Cardiff Blues – the first time they’d lost at home in the PRO14 since 2016.

The Scarlets are have an injury crisis on their hands with their back row one of their worst effected errors with Welsh international duo James Davies (foot) and Aaron Shingler (knee) out, along with Blade Thomson and South African Uzair Cassiem. Will Boyde and Josh Macleod are also out.

Owens will pack down at no.8 for the first time in his professional career and vacates the no.2 jersey for Ryan Elias who is set to make his 100th appearance for Scarlets in the final home derby clash of the season. The Carmarthen-born Academy product comes into the 15 to mark his centenary.

With Leigh Halfpenny unavailable due to concussion, Johnny McNicholl moves to full-back, with Paul Asquith and Ioan Nicholas completing the back-three.  Kieran Hardy and Dan Jones form the 9/10 partnership with Hadleigh Parkes back in midfield alongside Jonathan Davies.

Commented ahead of the derby clash, head coach Wayne Pivac said; “We haven’t been too far off. We had 68% possession and 65% territory against the Blues so we did some good things. It’s more about the things that we can do to make sure we convert that pressure and time in the opposition’s 22 into points.  The focus for us this week has been on our pass accuracy and the separation between our ball carriers and runners.  There were some positives out there and we’re focusing on that and tightening up in other areas.

“Results are going all over the shop and we’re still one point off the play-offs.  Other results have meant there’s everything to play for. We believe that by the end of the season if we can get our top side on the pitch then we’ll compete in this competition. We’ve got to accumulate enough points between now and then.  This game against the Dragons on the weekend becomes vital in that quest.  We believe we’ll turn it round and the boys are working very hard and haven’t lost sight of the end goal.”

Scarlets team to take on Dragons at Parc y Scarlets, Saturday 5th January:

 
15  Johnny McNicholl , 14 Ioan Nicholas, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12  Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Paul Asquith, 10 Dan Jones, 9  Kieran Hardy, 1 Rob Evans, 2 Ryan Elias, 3 Samson Lee, 4 Josh Helps, 5 David Bulbring, 6 Ed Kennedy, 7 Dan Davies, 8 Ken Owens ©
 
Replacements; 16 Marc Jones, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Tom Price, 20 Tom Phillips, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22 Steff Hughes, 23  Tom Prydie, 24 Phil Price, 25 Gareth Davies