Peel breaks silence 4 months after preferring Scarlets to Cardiff

Former 2005 Lions scrum-half Dwayne Peel has given his first big interview as Scarlets boss four months after he managed to wrangle his way out of the three-year deal that had originally been arranged to take him from Ulster to work as attack coach at Cardiff.

That deal to move from Belfast to the Welsh capital had been agreed to in December 2020. However, after it became known the Scarlets were in the market for a head coach and that John Mulvihill was being replaced as Cardiff boss by Dai Young, negotiations were held to agree on the compensation that enabled Peel to move to Parc y Scarlets rather than the Arms Park.

Within a month of that change getting announced in April, it emerged that rather than having then head coach Glenn Delaney promoted to a new director of rugby role overseeing the work of Peel, the ex-Wales No9 would instead take charge of the entire rugby programme.

That was May and Peel has now been speaking to Scarlets TV about his first impressions on being appointed as boss at the club he played with for eight seasons before seeing out his playing career at Sale and Bristol prior to his transition into coaching, a journey that initially saw him employed by the Bears before his reputation-enhancing four-year stint in Belfast.

There was no mention of the backroom manoeuvrings that led to Peel eventually finding himself back at the Scarlets but he outlined the big fix that is required in the seasons ahead if the club is to rekindle the PRO12 glory of 2017 where they clinched the league title by defeating Munster with a snazzy Aviva Stadium performance.

"Consistency is a big thing and consistency in performance for me is the one thing that I have spoken to the players about, the level of consistency week in week out, the team has to look very similar week in week out," said Peel. "That is one thing. There is no doubt there are times where we played some great rugby and conversely a week after not played such great rugby. There has to be a level of consistency of performance across the board.

"There is going to be times when you will not play well. That's rugby. There is going to be times when you are going to win games and you haven't played well, and there is going to be times when you lose when you have played well. I'm not talking about winning and losing, or winning cups.

"What I am saying is the consistency of what we are doing in our habits daily on the pitch, that is important for us and it is important not only for us to see as coaches or fellow players but the people who are paying to come to watch the game. They want to turn up and know what they are getting. If we win, we win and if we don't, we don't but the level of consistency for me is one driver I have definitely spoken to the players about."

Scarlets finished third in Conference B of last season's PRO14, winning just eight of their 16 matches and finishing 25 points behind the table-topping Munster. They were also hammered at home by Sale in the round of 16 knockout stages of the Champions Cup. Scarlets will open their new season under Peel with a September 25 United Rugby Championship trip to Edinburgh.