Wayne Pivac slams ‘archaic’ European eligibility rules
Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac expressed his unhappiness after he failed in his bid to register back-row Tom Phillips for their final two Champions Cup matches.
Pivac criticised European eligibility rules which prevent the Scarlets from registering Phillips, who was not named in the Welsh region’s original squad.
Teams name a 41-man squad before the start of the competition and although the Scarlets currently have seven back-row players sidelined through injury, they are unable to register Phillips ahead of their clash with Leicester Tigers at Parc y Scarlets.
“It is an archaic system that needs to be looked at,” Pivac told the BBC.
Each club are allowed to register up to three extra players during the tournament’s pool stage to replace a player previously selected but the Scarlets have used up their allocation.
The Welsh region cannot qualify for the Champions Cup quarter-finals after losing their first four matches but wanted to use Phillips in their last two pool matches against the Tigers and Racing 92.
The Scarlets are currently without the services of Blade Thomson, James Davies, Aaron Shingler, Uzair Cassiem, Will Boyde and Josh Macleod.
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Wales and British and Irish Lions hooker and Scarlets captain Ken Owens had to play at number eight in his side’s 22-13 triumph over the Dragons on Saturday. He played alongside young flankers Ed Kennedy and Dan Davis in the back-row and Phillips came on as a replacement in the second half for Kennedy.
Pivac feels the policy is threatening player welfare.
“Unfortunately, Tom can’t play in Europe because we have used all our injury cards,” he said.
“I understand why they do it but this is a guy that is ranked in our loose forwards and has been in the club all his life.
“He can’t play despite us having injuries so we have to play players out of position and put them at risk.
“We have already asked the question in the last round but we were turned down so there is no point going there again.
“It is something at the end of the season we will definitely discuss.”