Jack Maynard will hope to take his old town down on Friday night when he is part of the Llandovery team heading to Carmarthen.
The Scarlets’ regional derby is live on S4C (7.25pm) as the Principality Premiership takes centre stage with the Drovers bidding to prove they are far from out of the race for the title.
It was Maynard’s last ditch drop goal that allowed Llandovery to snatch a dramatic 32-32 draw against Cardiff last weekend and leave the Arms Park with three points. Now they want to build on that at Carmarthen Park.
That dramatic draw kept them in the top seven and ended a run of three successive away defeats. Now they will be aiming to pick up their first win on the road since they beat Swansea 23-10 at St Helen’s on 27 October, with Maynard raring to go.
“I’m a Carmarthen boy and I’ve got a lot of mates in the Quins side. It is the televised game for the weekend and it really is a big derby game – the biggest game for me, being a Carmarthen boy,” said Maynard, who will start on the bench.
“The last three results have been special for us after losing a few, so if we could win again it would put us back in contention. We want to get back in the top three.
“We don’t see ourselves as a team that wants to stay up, we see ourselves as a competitive side who can go and win it. It is very open this season and there are still a few teams in the hunt.”
Llandovery have won four of the last five league meetings and the Quins have to go back to May, 2017, for their last triumph in the fixture. Their 20-9 win at Cross Keys last weekend ended a five match losing streak that had seen them drop to ninth in the table.
There were 10 points from the ever-reliable boot of Aled Thomas and tries from hooker Torin Myhill and centre Josh Batcup to thank for the win at Pandy Park. Now Emyr Phillips’ side will go in search for their first home win since they beat Neath at Carmarthen Park on 9 November.
Carmarthen Quins: Aled Thomas; Dale Ford, Jack Price, Josh Batcup, Dylan Morgans; Steffan Marshall, Jonathan Evans; Steff Phillips, Torin Myhill, Javan Sebastian, Lee Taylor, Hayden Pugh (captain), Shaun Jones, Ellis Lloyd, Lewys Millin.
Reps: Thomas Kaijacks, Thomas Ball, Connor Allen, Ed Siggery, Gethin Davies, Gareth Rees, Osian Knott, Curtis Ford.
Llandovery: Gavin Thomas; Corey Baldwin, Ryan Evans, Rhodri Jones, Morgan Williams; Jack Maynard, Lee Rees; Jamie Hughes, Marc Jones, Berian Watkins, Rhys Jones, Jack Jones, Joe Powell, Stuart Worrall, Richard Brooks (captain).
Reps: Llyr Green, Dino Dallavalle, Morgan Jones, Lewis Ellis-Jones, Ricky Guest, Shaun Miles, Kristian Jones, Scott Maynard.
