Stradey Park match/Llanelli Scarlets v Leinster: At face value, Leinster could hardly be facing a tougher assignment at this juncture of their season. Still awaiting the return of their galacticos, they travel to something of a bogey ground against the form team and leaders of the Magners League.
Despite an unfavourable schedule, with three of their opening four away from home, a run of three wins in eight days has propelled the Scarlets to the top of the table.
Admittedly those victories were against three of last season's bottom four and thus may or may not give a misleading picture of Llanelli's standing.
Nevertheless, there was no disguising the quality of their emphatic win away to a Connacht side themselves in buoyant form last Friday when Phil Davies cleverly rotated his squad.
They are scoring freely, and compared to their trek to the Sportsground last season, Connacht were struck by the improved mobility and cohesion of their pack as much as the obvious direction now being given them by Stephen Jones.
Leinster did win at Stradey in the European Cup, albeit all of eight seasons ago before suffering a second home defeat to them in that competition in the return fixture.
More pertinently, in the last three seasons all six clashes have gone to the home side and Llanelli are unbeaten in 10 games at home.
Furthermore, Leinster have only won on one of their last 10 visits to Wales, and a consistent feature of that dispiriting run has been the trouble they, and Felipe Contepomi especially, have had in coping with the blitz defence usually employed by Welsh sides.
Guy Easterby is recalled in place of Chris Whitaker, as is Trevor Hogan for Adam Byrnes in the secondrow, while Davies rotates again by making eight changes.
He can even give Mark Jones his first start in place of the league's leading try scorer Darren Daniel, as well as recalling Dwayne Peel and Regan King at inside centre, and their five changes up front.
LEINSTER: R Kearney; L Fitzgerald, K Lewis, M Berne, D Hickie; F Contepomi (capt), G Easterby; R McCormack, H Vermaas, W Green, T Hogan, O Finegan, S Keogh, N Ronan, J Heaslip. Replacements (from): R Corrigan, B Jackman, A Byrnes, D Toner, K Gleeson, C Whitaker, C Warner, G Brown.
SCARLETS: C Thomas; M Jones, M Watkins, R King, D James; S Jones, D Peel; I Thomas, M Rees, C Dunlea, I Afeaki, S Macleod, S Easterby (capt), G Thomas, A Popham. Replacements: D Manu, K Owens, A Jones, J Bater, C Stuart-Smith, G Evans, B Davies.
Referee: David Changleng (SRU).
Previous meetings: (03-04) Leinster 31 Llanelli 20; Llanelli 51 Leinster 20; (04-05) Llanelli 24 Leinster 22; Leinster 31 Llanelli 25; (05-06) Llanelli 20 Leinster 18; Leinster 30 Llanelli 22.
Formguide: Llanelli - L W W W. Leinster - L W.
Leading try scorers: Llanelli - Darren Daniel 5, Gavin Evans 3, Regan King 2. Leinster - Ronan McCormack, Michael Berne 1 each.
Leading points scorers: Llanelli - Stephen Jones 42. Leinster - Felipe Contepomi 20.
Forecast: Llanelli to win.
Free weekend: Munster.
