The pressures of the past week's frenetic activity have taken their toll on Llanelli ahead of tonight's visit to Melrose to face the Edinburgh Reivers, leaving them substantially under-strength.
Among those absent from their side for the Celtic League clash are the two players who made memorable debuts for Wales against Scotland at the Millennium Stadium in March, full back Matt Cardey and stand-off Stephen Jones, whose regular half-back partner Rupert Moon joins him on the bench.
Also missing are international powerhouses Scott Quinnell and Chris Wyatt, while Tongan internationalist Salesi Finau is also
listed among the replacements.
On the face of it, it looks a good opportunity for the Reivers to give departing coach Bob Easson the perfect farewell gift with a victory over Welsh rugby's team of the season, Llanelli having just missed out on getting to the European Cup final and having reached next week's Welsh Cup final.
Indeed, while they still have seven internationalists in their side, it looks as if the visitors - who still need to win one of their last two league matches to secure a European Cup place next season - may be taking the Reivers rather lightly, despite having lost to Glasgow Caledonian Reds on their previous visit to Scotland.
Reivers are also without their playmaker, stand-off Duncan Hodge having had an injection earlier this week into a troublesome shoulder problem, although he stressed that he expects to be fully fit for Scotland's tour of New Zealand, which begins next month.
However his absence and that of his half-back partner in Sunday's win over Bridgend, Iain Fairley, are the only changes to the Reivers' starting line-up, with Heriot's stand-off Gordon Ross partnered by Graeme Burns.
Since today marks the launch of a new marketing tool with the Reivers lively new website, the hope is that this final match of the season will help start a summer campaign to build on the Reivers core support.
For the Reds, meanwhile, the season ends in the same way as they have spent much of the year 2000 so far, on the road.
Their campaign having fizzled out since the turn of the year, they need a win at Neath tonight to be sure of avoiding finishing ignominiously in tenth spot, with only struggling Dunvant and Caerphilly below them.
Finishing on a high note with only a third victory of the season in Wales would offer further encouragement at the end of a week which has seen some of their leading players give Scottish rugby a huge vote of confidence by extending their contracts with the Reds.
That is also underlined by the determination of tonight's debutant, Scottish-qualified New Zealander Michael Bartlett, to take his chance to join the squad.
The 21-year-old winger was due to join the Reds in November, but opted instead to undergo shoulder surgery to ensure that, when he did arrive, he did himself justice. ''I was impressed by the level they are playing at,'' he said. ''I just hope I can make the right impression and can get something sorted out for next season.''
Edinburgh Reivers (v Llanelli at The Greenyards, ko 7pm): C Paterson; K Milligan, K Utterson, G Shiel capt, M Di Rollo; G Ross, G Burns; A Jacobsen, S Scott, B Stewart, G Hayter, I Fullarton, C Mather, G Dall, S Taylor. Replacements - C Sharman, S Lang, I Fairley, T McVie, G McCallum, M Proudfoot, W Mitchell.
Llanelli: G Evans; W Proctor capt, N Davies, D James, M Jones; G Henson, P Horgan; S Emms, R McBryde, J Davies, A Copsey, C Gillies, D Jones, I Jones, H Jenkins. Replacements - M Madden, M Thomas, V Cooper, I Boobyer, R Moon, S Jones, S Finau.
Neath (v Glasgow Caledonian Reds at The Gnoll, ko 7.15pm): M Singer; T Tieuti, J Storey, T Davies, D Williams; C Rees, M Davies; Duncan Jones, M Davies capt, A Millward, S Martin, P Sidoli, Delme Jones, B Sinkinson, N Bonner-Evans. Replacements - R Johnston, A Jacobs, S Stephens, S Jones, R Francis, R Phillips, D James.
Glasgow Caledonian Reds: T Hayes; M Bartlett, I Jardine, J Stuart, A Bulloch; B Irving, A Nicol capt; A Watt, G Scott, G McIlwham, S Campbell, J White, R Reid, D McFadyen, G Simpson. Replacements - R Couper, I McInroy, F Stott, J Petrie, M Waite, D Herrington, G Bulloch.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article