Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel praised the attitude of his young squad as they finished the 2023-24 season with a bonus-point victory over the Dragons on Judgment Day.
Scarlets scored four tries – two in each half – to secure a 32-15 victory, a result that sees them finish 13th in the final BKT United Rugby Championship standings.
“We wanted to finish the season well, that was important for us,” said Peel. |We didn’t turn up for this game 12 months ago and we spoke about that in the week, the players brought it up that last Judgement Day we were poor – it was important that we finished the season strongly.
“It would have been easy for the boys to switch off these last few weeks, especially for the boys leaving, but we trained at New Dock Stars on Thursday and it was a real competitive session and fair play to the likes of Foxy, Scotty, they really got stuck in to make sure the 23 was as best prepared as they could be.
“It is important that our young boys get used to coming to occasions like this and performing well. I feel we have come a long way in terms of the mentality of those guys leading the group.”
Peel added: “I keep banging the drum that this is a big club and has been for a long time, we want to compete.
“I understand the fans’ frustration because we have always been a team that competes and pushes hard. We always knew this time was coming, with the changes in the group and if you look back at the season there are games we should have won, games we weren’t good enough and games we have competed hard.”
Wing Tomi Lewis, who crossed for two tries, will undergo an assessment this week on the injury that saw him limp off towards the end of the second half.
“It didn’t look great in the changing room, possibly his Achilles, but we will wait and see,” added Peel.
“If he is injured for a lengthy period I will be gutted for him. He was excellent. I said to our analyst on about 45 minutes ‘Tomi is playing himself on the tour here’. The future is bright for him and he will come back stronger.”