Josh Macleod has urged his Scarlets team be bold when they take on Leinster on Saturday and conceded they may need to score as many as five tries in order to earn a shock victory.
The West Wales region will be huge underdogs in their United Rugby Championship quarter-final final tie in Dublin.
Bookmakers DragonBet make Macleod’s men 14/1 shots for the win and are suggesting they will need a 24-points start to have any chance of an upset.
But the Scarlets beat Leinster, 35-22, at home only a month ago and were the only team this season to manage a try bonus point in the league against the former champions.
A week later, the Irish province were knocked out of the European Champions Cup at the Aviva Stadium in an epic semi-final, where it needed Northampton to score five tries in a 37-34 triumph.
“I couldn't tell you what the scoreline is going to be, to be quite honest, says skipper Macleod in answer to the question of whether the Scarlets will once again need to go above the 35-points mark in order to be successful.
“We'll try and be positive. We're going to have a game plan that we've installed and continued to work on throughout the week.
“But we do know that come the 80-minute mark, we're going to have had to score three, four, or five tries, or whatever it takes to beat them.
“Historically, they've always scored a decent amount of points at home.”
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It’s not just the Scarlets’ attacking game – in a contest where they are likely to be without injured scrum-half Gareth Davies – that needs to be spot on, though.
After losing to Saints, Leinster went and walloped Zebre, 76-5, before finishing their regular league season by beating champions Glasgow, 13-5.
Macleod – whose personal form in the Scarlets back row has won him a recall to the Wales squad – adds: “One thing I do know is that when you get into the knockout stages, to win tournaments and stuff, you need a strong defence.
“Defensively, we've got to be there. Attack, it's not really my forte, but if we can score another 35 points it'll go a long way to winning the game. We'll see on the day.”
Macleod, 28, was just a youngster sat on the Scarlets bench eight years ago when the Scarlets beat Leinster at the RDS Arena, 27-15, at the semi-final stage.
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Under former coach Wayne Pivac, the Scarlets went on to become Pro12 champions with a team that included internationals such as Liam Williams, Jonathan Davies, Rhys Patchell, Tadhg Beirne and John Barclay.
Macelod recalls: “I think I was holding the tackle bags that day. But I was certainly celebrating on the touchline, when we ran on at the end.
“It was some occasion, so hopefully if I get the chance to lace up the boots, it's going to be a little bit of a different experience for me. But I certainly remember that day with fond memories.”
The current Scarlets team does not boast the same amount of recognised Test quality as the class of 2017, but Macleod believes that recent victories over the Lions, the Ospreys and Edinburgh, as well as Leinster, underline the current team’s progress.
They may not have the depth or the major names of years gone by, but they are young side who have come through painful times, when they suffered some ugly defeats.
“I’d say the tightness, the bond within the group, is one that I haven't experienced for a couple of years, a good couple of years,” says Macleod of Dwayne Peel’s fighters.
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In their prime years, Munster’s Donncha O’Callaghan always used to claim his team were “better when we were bitter,” a chippiness well-grooved in the shadows of Leinster.
The Scarlets – served with divorce papers by the WRU – have plenty to fuel them ahead of the weekend.
“We've had a lot of mouldable youngsters who have come on board and seriously impacted the club,” adds Macleod.
“We've also got senior guys who are willing to be open to learning themselves as well, so from a cultural perspective it's one of the strongest teams that I've been a part of.
“Talent is a matter of perspective, but you know there's a seriously good 23 that will come onto the pitch on Saturday.
“Good signings have helped - the way they've bought into the culture, bought into the club, bought into the ethos, but it was something we alluded to at the start of the season, that it needed a little bit of a tweak.
“We've done that and we're in a quarter-final, so something's clicked.”
Another backs-to-the-wall show of defiance, coupled with some slick try-scoring, and those 14-1 odds might be made to look generous.
