 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  | |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  | |  |
Wales hooker Robin McBryde is rated no better than 50-50 to face the French club for a place in the last four of the Heineken Cup and Marcus Thomas is the latest No 2 casualty after popping an AC joint last Friday night in the 23-23 draw with Pontypridd.
"By far and away our biggest concern is at hooker and Marcus will now be out for a couple of weeks," said coach Nigel Davies, the former Wales centre.
"Robin is jogging again after the toe operation to remove some floating bone but he would probably need to play some part in the match against Neath to be anywhere near available for the Heineken Cup quarter-final."
Llanelli have taken the opportunity offered to all the quarter-finalists of registering two additional players, Bryn Griffiths and Tal Selley, and replacing a front row forward with another player capable of playing in the front row.
Hooker Adam Yelland has made way in Llanelli's Heineken Cup squad for Aled Gravelle, the 2002 Wales under-21 international who has also starred in the back row, with Gravelle possibly in line for his first European squad call-up.
Llanelli and Perpignan have met three times in the Heineken Cup in the last four seasons with Perpignan standing 2-1 ahead. The French club made home advantage pay in the 1998/99 quarter-finals, winning 34-17, with the two Pool 1 encounters last season going to the home side. The Scarlets won 20-6 at Stradey Park and Perpignan 42-10 at Stade Aime Giral.
"Everyone knows we make no secret of targeting Europe as our prime target and I went over to see them playing in Agen recently and that was invaluable," he said. "Perpignan lost 18-12 but also proved a hugely capable team.
"They have got a massive set of rugged forwards - as well as plenty of talent behind. Their key player is Australian international fly half Manny Edwards - he runs the show for them.
"But playing at home is a huge advantage. The match is a sell-out and, as it is so expensive for their supporters to make the trip, Perpignan will only have around 100 fans at Stradey Park.
"A capacity crowd at Stradey, with by far the majority of them wearing scarlet colours, has to be worth around 12 points. However, with the end of the Six Nations Championships, the task for us now is to gel our international boys back into the club team - and that is a big challenge.
"In our last game as a full squad, against Glasgow Rugby, we were flying. But that momentum has been taken away and we have to try and rebuild that in the short space of just a couple of weeks."
