SCARLETS skipper Matthew Rees will make his first appearance of the season against Connacht on Saturday — but the tough-talking British Lion has already made his mark at Parc y Scarlets this week.

In the words of head coach Nigel Davies, Wales hooker Rees 'laid into' the squad at training yesterday in the wake of Saturday's shock opening Magners League defeat in Treviso.

"We are starting to see the strength of Matthew Rees as captain," revealed Davies.

Demand

"He laid into them and that is exactly what I would expect from Matthew.

"I am sure he will be involved at the weekend and he will demand better from everybody."

Rees, along with fellow Wales international Stephen Jones and Scotland wing Sean Lamont, were rested for last weekend's trip to Italy.

But all three are set to be named in Davies's match-day squad for the round two fixture in Llanelli.

"The whole squad of fit players were always going to be available for this game," added Davies.

"The only slight doubt is David Lyons with his hamstring, but I think he is going to be okay. Whoever is fit is available for selection."

Davies will demand an immediate reaction from his squad in their first league outing on home soil.

And he admitted that shoring-up some lacklustre defence on show in Italy has been the priority this week.

"We had a pretty physical session yesterday and I told the boys afterwards if you are prepared to do that to each other, surely you can at least do that to the opposition," added Davies.

Soft

"We got some key moments of the game wrong against Treviso and defence has been a big focus for us this week.

"Looking back at the game we were very poor without the ball, we didn't front up and we gave away a couple of very soft tries.

"Defence is the biggest part of our game we have had to change from the last two years, but Saturday wasn't a technical thing. We just didn't man up.

"We have told the group that historically we have picked the team based on their ability with the ball, that will no longer be the case, it will be their ability to defend as much as anything else."

Full-back Morgan Stoddart is likely to be rested for the visit of the Irish province as well as next week's game against Aironi as he continues to suffer from a hamstring problem.

"Morgan is struggling a little bit; he is not 100 per cent right," said Davies. "We suspected he might have these problems because this is the first time he has trained at this intensity since the injury.

"We will probably rest him for a couple of weeks and hopefully he will then be ready to go again."