| With the Scarlets decimated through Welsh international call-ups, Phil Davies has made five changes to the forwards pack which defeated London Irish on Sunday and three in the backs, as well as moving Matthew Watkins from wing to the midfield.
With Dwayne Peel, Stephen Jones and Gavin Evans all away on Six Nations duty, Clive Stuart-Smith, Ceiron Thomas and Darren Daniel get their chance to shine.
In the pack Iestyn Thomas, Craig Dunlea and Scott MacLeod are the only survivors as James Bater takes over the captaincy from Simon Easterby who is unavailable because of his Irish duties.
Nathan Thomas, Dafydd Jones, Vernon Cooper and Ken Owens are all drafted in as the Scarlets seek their first Magners League win since November.
“We are going to Leinster for the first of four Magners Leagues matches before the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, so this is an important part of the season for us as Leinster are a quality side,” said Davies.
The Scarlets boss played down the fact that he is missing the nucleus of his first string side.
“To be honest it’s an insult to the players in the squad saying that this one is off (on international duty) and this one is off,” he explained. “It’s about a squad, about managing players through a nine month season. We’ve got a period where we have players missing so we now have to make sure we get our performance levels up and go to Leinster and get a win.”
Scarlets (vs Leinster)
15 Morgan Stoddart
14 Dafydd James
13 Regan King
12 Matthew Watkins
11 Darren Daniel
10 Ceiron Thomas
9 Clive Stuart-Smith;
1 Iestyn Thomas
2 Ken Owens
3 Craig Dunlea
4 Vernon Cooper
5 Scott MacLeod
6 Dafydd Jones
7 James Bater (capt|)
8 Nathan Thomas
16 Deacon Manu 17 Aled Gravelle 18 Adam Jones 19 Inoke Afeaki 20 Liam Davies 21 Barry Davies 22 Garan Evans
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