Wales hooker Elias fit for Scarlets bench at Munster

United Rugby Championship: Munster v Scarlets

Venue: Thomond Park, Limerick Date: Saturday, 15 February Kick off: 17:15 GMT

Coverage: Watch live on S4C via BBC iPlayer. Highlights on the BBC Sport website and app.

Wales hooker Ryan Elias is fit to return to the Scarlets bench for Saturday's United Rugby Championship (URC) game against Munster in Limerick.

Elias, 30, has not played for Scarlets since the end of November with a neck injury and proving his fitness would be a major lift for club and country.

Scarlets are also boosted by the return of four players released from Wales' Six Nations squad for the trip to Ireland - wing Ellis Mee, centre Joe Roberts and forwards Kemsley Mathias and Taine Plumtree.

The only other change from last month's victory against Edinburgh sees fit-again Dan Davis come into the back row in place of Josh Macleod, who sits out the game with a slight hamstring problem.

In Macleod's absence scrum-half Gareth Davies takes over the captain's armband.

Wales prop Sam Wainwright also returns to the Scarlets bench after injury.

Munster are missing Tadhg Beirne, Peter O'Mahony, Jack Crowley, Conor Murray and Calvin Nash who are in the Ireland squad preparing to play Wales in Cardiff next Saturday.

They show one change to the side that cruised past Dragons Josh Wycherley returning from a neck injury to start at loosehead prop.

Scarlets are sixth in the URC table, one point and one place above Munster.

Dwayne Peel's side have won five and drawn one of their 10 games, while the Irish province has won five, lost five.

Munster have lost only won of their last four league games, at home to leaders Leinster over Christmas, their only defeat at Thomond Park since last season's semi-final.

Scarlets' success has also been based on a good home record - unbeaten in six at Parc y Scarlets - and their only away win in any tournament this campaign was at Cardiff in October.

The Llanelli-based side were the last region to win away in Limerick - in 2017 - but have not beaten Munster since 2019, or any Irish team since 2021.

Head coach Peel said: "We know that Thomond Park is a tough place to go, but we are excited by the challenge. You want to be prepared for a fight when you go there, that is a mindset thing for us.

"We have been competitive when we have travelled this season, but lost some tight games. We lost to Glasgow by two points, we lost to Bayonne by one point, we lost to Ospreys by one point. We want to turn that tide."

Munster: Ben O'Connor; Shane Daly, Tom Farrell, Rory Scannell, Diarmuid Kilgallen; Billy Burns, Ethan Coughlan; Josh Wycherley, Diarmuid Barron, Oli Jager, Tom Ahern, Fineen Wycherley, Jack O'Donoghue (capt), Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Niall Scannell, Kieran Ryan, John Ryan, Brian Gleeson, John Hodnett, Paddy Patterson, Tony Butler, Shay McCarthy.

Scarlets: Ioan Nicholas; Ellis Mee, Joe Roberts, Johnny Williams, Steff Evans; Ioan Lloyd, Gareth Davies (capt); Kemsley Mathias, Marnus van der Merwe, Archer Holz, Max Douglas, Sam Lousi, Taine Plumtree, Dan Davis, Vaea Fifita.

Replacements: Ryan Elias, Alec Hepburn, Sam Wainwright, Alec Craig, Jarrod Taylor, Archie Hughes, Charlie Titcombe, Macs Page.

Referee: Federico Vedovelli (FIR)

Assistant referees: Robbie Jenkinson & Paul Haycock (IRFU)

TMO: Stefano Roscini (FIR)