Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel has urged his side to seize the day ahead of Saturday’s Challenge Cup semi-final showdown against Glasgow.
A bumper crowd is expected at Parc y Scarlets to witness a first European semi-final on home soil and Peel has told his players to ‘be bold’.
“You have to be bold and go and win the game in semi-finals, not sitting on or protecting leads,” said Peel, who played for the club in two Heineken Cup semi-finals in 2002 and 2007.
“We have to try and go and play and that’s what I will try and encourage the players to do. I am sure it will be a great occasion with a good crowd so it will be fantastic for them.
“Results-wise it’s been a good 2023 so far, but we want to finish strong and we’ve got a big opportunity at home, one we’ve worked hard for and not only since the 1st of January but since last June, July, when we came into pre-season.
“Yes we had a poor start to the season, but I think this competition, in particular, has given us lots of energy and a lot of good performances.
“We know it’s going to be a big challenge to win it. Glasgow are on form at the minute. They had new management in Franco Smith coming in and he’s done a really good job there, they play an attractive style of rugby and they’ve been a team, especially at home, that are very difficult to beat.”
Peel added: “Not many of our guys have been where we are now in terms of semi-finals, especially the younger guys in the group. It is about them enjoying it. Probably a criticism of when I look back at my career is that we probably did not play our best when we got to semi-finals. There were tight battles but we have to go out there and be prepared to try and win.”