Dwayne Peel and Stephen Jones – arguably the Scarlets’ greatest half-back pairing will go head to head in opposition coaching boxes on Saturday night.
Jones, the club’s record points scorer, will return to Llanelli as assistant coach of Newcastle Red Bulls as the sides meet for the first time in European competition.
The headlines in the build-up to Saturday night’s EPCR Challenge Cup clash will inevitably be dominated by the good mates’ going head to head at Parc y Scarlets.
So it was no surprise that the question cropped up quickly at his week’s media conference to preview the game.
“We’re in contact weekly, although we haven’t spoken this week!” smiled Dwyane.
“I’m sure we’ll have a beer afterwards, no doubt. From my perspective, it’s great to see him back in the UK coaching. It’s an exciting project, undoubtedly, up in Red Bull.
“I worked with Dan McFarland in Ulster for three seasons as well. They’ve got a good coaching group. I’m looking forward to catching up with them. I’m sure they’ll be ambitious about coming here this weekend.”
The last time the Scarlets played Newcastle was in an EDF Energy Anglo-Welsh Cup tie at Kingston Park in 2006 with a squad that contained both Peel and Jones.
Dwayne added: “Myself and Steve came through Llanelli together. Not long after he started, I joined as well, so we managed to play a lot of our rugby together, obviously progressing through to Wales, etc.
“We played some big European games with the Scarlets. We won the league with the Scarlets. We were lucky to play in a good side, which puts you on the map. We were very successful here as a club and obviously with Wales as well, playing together in that 2005 Grand Slam. Obviously, lots of good memories.”
Looking forward to the Saturday night Group A opener, Dwayne added: “For us as a club, we recognise the importance of having a good run in this tournament, like we did a few years back.
“You can see Newcastle getting better every week and if you watched their game against Exeter on Sunday, I thought they were very physical. They finished some lovely tries as well, so it’s going to be a big challenge for us.
“From a squad perspective, it’s about, can we carry the momentum from last week’s win against Benetton? That’s the big focus, because we go to Cape Town next week, which is obviously going to be a difficult game. Pretoria the week after, we want to go there feeling confident and momentum behind us.”
Peel confirmed that Wales international Taine Plumtree has trained this week and there will be a late call on his availability to play on Saturday. New signing Tom Allen is due to arrive from New Zealand this week, while prop Corey Domachowski could return from injury in South Africa.