Scarlets name leadership group
This afternoon the Scarlets named their leadership group for the upcoming 2010-11 season. The club named Matthew Rees as the team’s captain, while awarding Stephen Jones the vice captaincy. In addition, David Lyons was named the team’s captain in the wings, and will take over when both Rees and Jones depart for international duty.
The three men carry with them a great deal of credibility and experience. Rees has been awarded 39 international caps, while Jones is the Scarlets highest scorer of all time with 2613 points, and has appeared in 91 caps for the squad. Meanwhile Australia’s Lyons has earned 43 caps in international play.
Scarlets head coach Nigel Davies had this to say of the captaincy announcements, “What we have in this group are three natural leaders, they all have different qualities and strengths which will benefit our group and the mix of players we have. They will work closely together to provide consistency and continuity in how we lead our players forward throughout the season.”
Rees takes over the captaincy role from Jones who spent last year leading the Scarlets in competition, while the now captain in the wings Lyons was the team’s vice-captain, a role now held by Jones. Last season Jones was forced to miss much of the season due to injury, and Lyons was required to take over captaincy duty. This captaincy exchange is a perfect example of how experienced the new Scarlets leadership group is for the 2010-11 campaign.
Rees discussed the effect he and his fellow captains will have on the Scarlets next season, “With experienced guys like Steve and David backing me as well, I think we’ll have a lot of strength and focus in getting this squad to perform to the best of its ability. For me, it’s about getting back to winning ways and I want to see Parc y Scarlets become a much tougher place to come and play. There is huge potential in this squad from senior level down through to our exciting new crop of development players. You can see that some of the guys who’ve had a taste of top level rugby now are eager to produce results.”
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