Owens demands positive finish

Editor

Scarlets captain Ken Owens wants his team to restore some pride in the shirt as they prepare for their final Champions Cup pool game against Northampton.

After a record defeat in the region's history in the competition, against Racing 92 in Paris on Sunday, Owens is adamant that the region finishes on a high at the Parc this Saturday.

Northampton will be looking to secure a victory to keep any hopes they still have of qualifying alive with the Scarlets going out to restore pride in their performance and jersey.

"We will try and finish on a positive note in Europe and take momentum into the PRO12," Owens told the Scarlets website.

"It means everything not to be whitewashed. Everything. For players, coaches, supporters. We worked really hard to guarantee that sixth spot last season to bring us into this competition. We can't hide from the fact that we've lost five from five with some pretty poor performances. We want to finish on a positive to take something from this campaign.

"I'm one of the fortunate ones perhaps who has played in a semi final and been involved. We've been through some tough times but we've always looked to Europe for motivation and to get scalps.

"You can accept losing to a better side, Racing were by far the better side but the manner we lost was hugely disrespectful to the club and to each other and supporters who travelled out there. We have to take that on the chin, have to be honest and take a good hard look at ourselves.

"You can't let it linger. We'll have to put this Racing game to bed. It won't be forget about it but build to Northampton. We've got to lick our wounds, pick ourselves up, put in a decent shift in at home and get some respect back."