Sam Costelow goes straight back into the Scarlets starting line-up after returning from autumn series duty with Wales.
The talented young fly-half features against Emirates Lions at Ellis Park in Sunday’s round nine clash in the United Rugby Championship (11.30am UK time).
He played twice for Wales during the recent internationals, making his debut off the bench against New Zealand and following it up with an appearance as a replacement against Georgia.
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Along with fellow Wales squad man Dane Blacker, Costelow flew out to Johannesburg to link with the Scarlets this week.
He is the only member of Wayne Pivac's November squad to figure as a starter this weekend, but the 21-year-old had just 32 minutes on the field during November.
The Scarlets will hope he can pick up where he left off for them, with Costelow securing his national squad call on the strength of some bright regional form. You can read here about the little Welsh club that turns boys into Wales internationals.
The west Walians make six changes all told.
Costelow is the only alteration behind as he partners Gareth Davies, while up front Kemsley Mathias, Taylor Davies and WillGriff John form a fresh front row and Vaea Fifita teams up with fellow Tonga international Sam Lousi at lock.
In the back row, Blade Thomson comes in at No. 8 for Sione Kalamafoni, who drops to the bench.
Shaun Evans, Phil Price and Javan Sebastian are new faces among the replacements, as is scrum-half Blacker.
The Scarlets lost 36-19 to the Stormers last weekend and expect another stern test.
“It is going to be another big challenge,” said head coach Dwayne Peel.
“We need to manage the game and we have to cut out the errors because that will cost us. The Lions are a physical side who want to play territory and put pressure on you. For us, we have to be bold. If you are not bold out here then it is a tough place to come.”
Good news for the tourists is that their injury list is down to just seven names, albeit Wyn Jones, Johnny Williams, Samson Lee and highly regarded centre Joe Roberts are still on it.
Scarlets: Johnny McNicholl; Tom Rogers, Jonathan Davies (capt), Scott Williams, Ryan Conbeer; Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies; Kemsley Mathias, Taylor Davies, WillGriff John, Sam Lousi, Vaea Fifita, Aaron Shingler, Dan Davis, Blade Thomson.
Replacements: Shaun Evans, Phil Price, Javan Sebastian, Sione Kalamafoni, Tomás Lezana, Dane Blacker, Rhys Patchell, Steff Evans.
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