Cardiff Blues have made five changes for their return to Guinness Pro14 action against the Scarlets on Saturday night. The Blues go into the Welsh derby at Parc y Scarlets on the back of consecutive European Challenge Cup victories against Lyon and Toulouse. Kristian Dacey continues to skipper the team and four of the changes come in the pack. Brad Thyer and Dillon Lewis complete the front-row, while Seb Davies and Olly Robinson step up from the bench at lock and flanker respectively.

Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac has admitted his team already need favours elsewhere if they are to make any impact in this season’s European Champions Cup. The Guinness Pro12 title holders were given a lesson in control and wet weather proficiency by Bath on Friday night as the English club won 18-13 at Parc Y Scarlets. It means the Scarlets have now lost both their opening two matches, normally the kiss of death for any team hoping to make it through to the quarter-finals.

Steff Evans is likely to be the beneficiary from George North’s latest injury which has ruled the Northampton wing out of Wales’ autumn series. Scarlets wing Evans has been knocking on the international door for 12 months, but had to wait until the summer before winning his first caps against Tonga and Samoa whilst North was on Lions duty. With North now due to be ruled out for the whole of November due to a knee problem, then 23-year-old Evans will be the favourite to take one of the wing spots for the Tests against Australia, Georgia, New Zealand and South Africa, with Liam Williams and Leigh Halfpenny likely to fill the other back three positions.

Scott Williams says the Scarlets’ Friday night Round 2 Champions Cup clash at home to Bath his a ‘must-win’ game after losing 21-20 to Toulon. The Guinness PRO12 champions were forced to recover from an 18 point deficit after conceding two tries in the opening quarter-of-an-hour, but then scored the next 20 to take the lead and keep the three-time Champions Cup winners scoreless for 40 minutes.

The Scarlets gave three-time champions Toulon an almighty fright after letting them race into an 18 point lead as they took the lead in the second half before finally falling 21-20.

The Scarlets begin their European campaign in France on Sunday. Rob Cole says Leigh Halfpenny will be among the points-scorers, but may have one particular score to settle with one particular club owner. Leigh Halfpenny has put his boot into many teams around the world during his career, but there might just be a little bit more relish going into his kicks at goal when he returns to Toulon for the Scarlets opening game in the Champions Cup on Sunday. The Wales and British & Irish Lions full back was staggered to find at the end of last season that the one-year contract extension that was originally on the table with the Top 14 side somehow ended up in the waste paper bin.

Former Ebbw Vale fly-half Josh Lewis has been handed a chance to make his mark for Bath on the European stage on Saturday. Lewis, who switched from Eugene Cross Park in the summer, will make his first start for the English club in their home European Champions Cup tie against Benetton Rugby.

Leigh Halfpenny insists he had to leave Wales in order to win trophies. The Wales full-back lines up against his old club Toulon on Sunday as the Scarlets travel to France in the opening round of the European Champions Cup. For Halfpenny it will be an opportunity to catch up with old friends and to reflect on his decision to return home after three years spent on the lavish payroll of the former European champions.

European rugby is back, but Robin Davey believes poor scheduling and some poor form means the Welsh regions will struggle to make much of a splash in their respective pools. European rugby takes centre stage this weekend, but before a ball is kicked there’s anger that clubs and fans are being given scant respect and in some cases treated with disdain. Already two clubs – the Scarlets and Wasps – have complained about schedules which are far too tight, especially at a time when concern about player welfare is so prevalent and rightly so.

Leigh Halfpenny is getting ready to show Toulon what they’re now missing since he joined the Scarlets. But with Wales’ autumn Test series fast approaching, Peter Jackson says it’s time for Warren Gatland to scrutinise Halfpenny’s form rather than his historic contribution. Leigh Halfpenny’s used to be the first name on the Wales team-sheet and not just because they named it back to front instead of the other way round. The question to be answered by the end of the month is whether he reappears in the starting XV by the time the Wallabies land at their customary staging-post beside the Taff after the migratory flight north. For the first time in a long while, Halfpenny cannot be sure on that score, even less so as to whether it will be at full-back, on the wing or as emergency cover on the touchline.

Look out, Boris Johnson – Europe is on the march! At least, it is in rugby as the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup swing open the borders to competition this weekend. Although, as Geraint Powell notes, there are fewer people waving the flag with quite the enthusiasm of a few years ago. It’s a familiar story of English land grabs and cash battles which have spectacularly backfired. I recently looked in my personal blog at the question of the ongoing omission of a Welsh regional rugby double-header at the Principality Stadium in Round 5 of the Guinness Pro14 (https://thevietgwent.wordpress.com/2017/10/02/the-pro14-round-5-another-season-and-once-again-where-was-the-other-welsh-regional-derby-double-header-at-the-wru-stadium/), to kick start the regional season for the wider rugby public, even though there were Welsh derby matches in Round 6. A crowd of only 8,178, inclusive of the vocal Dragons travelling support, watched the Cardiff Blues secure a 43-29 win in the eastern derby on Friday evening.   

Angry Lions, resurgent Dragons, and nose-diving Ospreys – Robin Davey examines the health of the beasts in the Welsh rugby game park after a dramatic few weeks on and off the field. Welsh rugby is never without its dramas and though we are only just into the second month of the current season they are there in abundance – some of the am-dram kind, but another with potential to please the critics. Who would have guessed little over a month ago that previous top-gunners the Ospreys would lose both their Wales and Lions half-backs Dan Biggar and Rhys Webb at the end of the season?