Gareth Davies has admitted players have to be “squeaky clean” as his Scarlets side prepare to face a Toulon team likely to be without France star Mathieu Bastareaud.
Powerhouse centre Bastareaud faces a lengthy ban when he appears before an ERC disciplinary panel on Wednesday after making a homophobic remark to an opponent during his club’s win over Benetton Treviso last Sunday.
If found guilty then the Toulon player is set to miss his club’s European Champions Cup showdown against the Scarlets on Saturday and could be absent for a chunk of the Six Nations.
Bastareaud is alleged to have directed his abuse towards Sebastian Negri after he clashed with the Benetton player during Toulon’s 36-0 victory.
Wales scrum-half Davies, who has faced Bastareaud for both club and country, said: “Respect for your opponent is obviously a key part of the game these days and you cannot get away with any abusive remarks.
“You have to be squeaky clean because everything gets picked up by the cameras and microphones.
“We have seen it happen in the past, so you have to keep your cool and stay calm.
“If Bastareaud is missing from the game when they play us, then obviously that’s a blow for Toulon and one or two of our players would be quite glad of he’s not running down their channel.”
Bastareaud faces a minimum ban of six weeks and maximum of 52 weeks if he is found guilty of verbal abuse of a player.
His absence from the Toulon side would be a significant blow for the former European champions and raise the Scarlets’ chances of making the knockout stages of the tournament for the first time in 11 years.
Davies believes the scintillating victory his team produced in the penultimate pool game away to Bath – and a 35-17 bonus point win – has put them in a strong position to complete the job with a victory this weekend.
“That result and performance has given us real confidence as well as the fact that we did very well against Toulon in the away game and should have come away with more.
“I don’t think there will be any changes in approach. The style of game we played in Bath suits us – fast and keeping the ball in hand and the opposition moving around and I’m sure it will be the same again.
“There might be one or two tactical changes, but the overall approach will be similar.
“The Bath win has to be right up there as one of the very best I’ve been part of at the Scarlets. We scored some great tries and there was a real excitement within the team that you could feel as we got on top.”