Head coach Dwayne Peel expressed his pride at his side’s performance as the Scarlets bowed out of this season’s BKT United Rugby Championship with a 33-21 quarter-final defeat to an international-stacked Leinster side in Dublin.
After falling behind 12-0 early on at the Aviva Stadium, the West Walians dug deep, showing a huge amount of character to rattle the hosts, scoring three superb tries through Tom Rogers, Blair Murray and Johnny Williams
Peel said: “Obviously, I am bitterly disappointed to have lost, but I am very proud of how we competed and the character, commitment and effort we showed.
“Leinster started fast, they generated quick ball and the writing was on the wall a bit, but I felt physically we got back into the game, we rattled them with a few of big tackles and managed to go in at half-time just a point down.
“The more we were in the arm wrestle I felt the longer we could put pressure on them, but credit to Leinster, in that 15 minutes after half-time they really took a stranglehold on the game with some intelligent kicking, they played smart rugby, pinned us back, we couldn’t get out of our half and they scored a couple of tries. It was hard to come back after that.
“We spoke about the pressure being on Leinster (after their Champions Cup defeat to Northampton) and we needed to take the game as long as we could and see if we could unsettle them. They have been in high-profile games for the last 10 years and have a lot of experience in seeing out those games, they showed that today. A bit of class here and there set the two teams apart and when you can bring players like Sheehan and Snyman off the bench, two of the best players in the world, it makes a difference.”
Peel added: “We have been building the squad over the last couple of years and we have had to go through some pain. This team has a long way to go and this is just the start of the journey. A lot of young guys would have experienced a game like that for the first time and will grow off the back of it.
“At the start of the season we said we wanted to compete and we did that until the 80th minute of the final game.
“You look at this season, there has only been two or three games, Gloucester, Munster and the Ospreys in the Challenge Cup. that we haven’t been in there competing, three games out of 24 that we haven’t been within one or two scores.
“We have qualified for the Champions Cup, which will provide another challenge in terms of the depth of our squad and the level of competitiveness every week, but I am excited by how this young team is growing and what we can achieve.”