By Simon Thomas
Tom Shanklin is backing the Scarlets to edge out Cardiff in Saturday’s big Welsh derby clash.
Both teams made positive starts to the BKT URC season, with Cardiff recording a bonus point win over Zebre Parma and the Scarlets coming tantalisingly close to a landmark victory away to Benetton Rugby before ultimately drawing 20-20.
Now they are set to lock horns down west in Llanelli.
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It was a record-breaking start to the URC with the average margin between the teams in the six matches being just 2.4 points, the lowest ever in the competition.
“I think it was a really good opening round,” said Shanklin.
“The match ups were pretty close and no team ran away with it.
“It was a really exciting and competitive first round of fixtures. There were no dead rubber games.”
As for the likely balance of power within the league, Shanklin said: “I think there are five teams that can win it – Munster, Stormers, Bulls, Glasgow and Leinster.
“It’s difficult to look beyond those five, although I would see Edinburgh and the Sharks as the dark horses,
“Out of the Welsh sides, the Ospreys have probably got the strongest squad, but we wait to see how the dynamic is going to work out with Toby Booth leaving at the end of the season.
“There is not a huge expectation on the Welsh teams to get into the top four, top five with the budgets they are having to play with. It’s going to be difficult for them to compete with a lot of the teams.
“What I want to see is them playing positive, entertaining rugby, something that excites me on the field, regardless of results, because you don’t want to lose fans at the moment, you don’t want to put them off.
“If you can see a product on the field that you are happy with and excited by, it motivates you to go and support again.”
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Tom Shanklin will be part of the Premier Sports team alongside Ross Harries, Philippa Tuttiet and Martin Gillingham bringing live coverage of Scarlets against Cardiff – the second big Welsh derby of the BKT URC season with all the action live on Premier Sports 2 from 5pm. To find out more visit www.premiersports.com
