Scarlets can upset Irish says Goode

The England fly-half faced the West Wales region for Brive on Saturday and knows first-hand how dangerous the Scarlets can be.

Goode and his French team-mates were on the wrong end of a 24-12 defeat at the Parc-y-Scarlets as Nigel Davies' men opened their Heineken Cup Pool 6 campaign with a hard-fought win.

And while London Irish grabbed the headlines with a memorable victory over European Champions Leinster in Dublin, Goode has little doubt that the Scarlets can offer a real challenge when they travel to the Madejski Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

"Irish are a bloody good side, make no bones about that. To go to Leinster and win is a big achievement. But the Scarlets will go there and give it a good crack," Goode told the Western Mail.

"If David Lyons can get on the front foot again, with Stephen Jones controlling it like he does, they have got every chance of winning there."

Despite sitting next-to-bottom in their domestic league and having won just once in the previous two seasons of Heineken Cup rugby, the Scarlets showed enough promise on Saturday to convince Goode that they can be serious contenders for qualification for the knockout stages of Europe's premier competition.

"The Scarlets are a good side," added the former Leicester and Saracens fly-half.

"They've got Lyons running the ball and getting a lot of go-forward.

"They've got a lot of good old heads in there, like Jones at 10, and they've got a lot of good young guys coming through as well.

"Jonathan Davies is playing really well for them at 12 and I think he was a big loss when he went off injured.

"It will certainly be a good game at the Madejski, that's for sure."