Nigel Davies cancelled training for two days during the week to allow his players to comfort their colleague and come to terms with the accident. Roy Newton, 52, a junior coach at Whitland RFC, was knocked down and killed by a car near St Clears, west Wales on Tuesday. Hours later, Newton was told of the accident during training ahead of Sunday's clash with Brive.

"Everyone was shocked by the tragic news and feels terrible for Dan and his family. None of the coaches felt they could continue with training, so we sent everyone home to come to terms with what had happened. Roy was a great guy and well-respected member of the local rugby community."

Understandably, Newton is not travelling to France for their quarter-final tie, but the memory of his father will go with the team. Wales Grand Slam centre Jonathan Davies will have Roy very much in mind having been coached by him at youth level at Whitland.

"Everyone is still raw and it's a huge loss. The best thing we can do for Dan and his father is to put in a performance they would be proud of," said Davies.

On the pitch, the Scarlets will face a physical challenge from a team still cock-a-hoop at beating Toulon last weekend. The two teams have met three times in Europe before, with the Welsh region leading 2-1 to date.

All three previous meetings have been in the Heineken Cup, with their opening clash coming in the quarter-finals in 1997 when the home team ran out comfortable winners by 35-14 on their way to winning the title. Their more recent games were in the 2009/10 Pool stages, when the Scarlets won 24-12 at home and 20-17 in Brive.

The Scarlets did the double over Castres Olympique in their Pool, finishing behind unbeaten Munster, but ahead of Northampton Saints to clinch the runners-up spot that earned them a ticket into the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals.

Brive went through their Amlin Challenge Cup Pool undefeated, scoring notable doubles over French rivals Agen and Sale Sharks. Their defensive displays on the road, especially at Sale, was superb and they will need to be at their strongest to keep at bay a Scarlets back line that contains the giant George North on the wing.

Stephen Jones starts at No 10 ahead of Rhys Priestland, who is on the bench, and he will be familiar with conditions in Brive having spent two seasons at ASM Clermont Auvergne. The Scarlets will look to move the ball at every opportunity and it will be down to former England outside half Shane Geraghty to dictate the home plans as both teams battle for a semi-final slot against the winners of London Wasp v Biarritz Olymique.