Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac has guided his side to a Guinness PRO14 final for a second consecutive season.
If the Scarlets are to be the first winners of the Guinness PRO14 they will not only have to secure another victory at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium but will need to do so against the newly crowned European Champions Leinster.
Leinster finished as Conference B leaders, seven points ahead of Scarlets with the West Wales region having to go the long way to the final. A convincing victory over tournament newcomers Cheetahs paved the way to a semi final victory over Glasgow.
Looking ahead to the championship final Pivac said; “Obviously it’s all about making the final and then it’s down to an 80-minute performance. We know that Leinster are such a good side that if we don’t bring our best game it will be a long afternoon, like it was in the (European) semi final.
“We have to make sure we’re in the contest. We have to fire some shots. We’ve got to try to win the race at the gainline, win some collisions and be a lot more physical than we were across the board. It’s one thing to know what they’re doing it’s another to be able to stop them. You don’t go through unbeaten in Europe without being a world-class side.
“We chose to rest the squad against Edinburgh, that’s something we haven’t done before. If you look at where we are now I think that was the right decision, even if it didn’t look like it at the time.
“We’re feeling good in terms of petrol in the tank. We’re probably as a squad a little bit stronger than we were at this time last year.
“It took a bit of time to develop our game last year and get it to where it was in the last month. If you look at our run now it’s been building nicely aswell.”
Leinster v Scarlets, Guinness PRO14 final, Aviva Stadium Saturday 26th May, kick-off 18:00. Live on Sky Sports and S4C.
The game will be shown live at Parc y Scarlets’ Heart & Soul Bar, open from 17:00.