Dwayne Peel spoke to the media this week ahead of Friday night’s BKT United Rugby Championship clash with Connacht at Parc y Scarlets.
Here’s what he had to say . . .
Are there any players coming back from injury this week?
DP: “Both Sam and Ioan are available for selection so it is good to have those back. They are key players and have been very influential over the last couple of seasons. Both have trained hard and trained fully so I expect them to be in the mix come Thursday. In terms of other injuries, Archie and Vaea won’t be available in this block of matches and then you have the more long-term absentees like Tomi, Steff and Joe.”
Do you anticipate many changes to the side?
DP: “I don’t think so, there will be a few tweaks, but on the whole I don’t envisage many changes. It is about managing the squad while keeping as much consistency as we can.”
Obviously it is a short turnaround, how does your training week look?
DP: “It is one big training day and a lighter week in many ways. From my perspective and the team’s perspective there is something good about having a short week; it was a disappointed group coming in on Monday, but it was a case of four days and we go again. That is the beauty of the sport, yes, you have your disappointment, but you are quickly into the next week. We parked the review pretty swiftly and we were into Connacht.”
What of Connacht’s threats?
DP: “We know Connacht’s DNA is to play with good structure, good shape and with ball in hand. They have power up front and are difficult to break down. It was an entertaining game in Galway last season and I’m expecting the same between two highly competitive sides. I’m looking forward to that challenge.”
What are the aspects of your game you need to improve on?
DP: “Before last Saturday’s game, we spoke that the breakdown and collision area was going to be key, Dan Thomas being man of the match says it all. He made hard work of the breakdown and slowed down our ball and in turn we didn’t win the collision battle enough. Also, we made four line-breaks in the second half which we didn’t finish off. But there was also plenty in the game that we can see where we are improving. We just weren’t accurate in execution and we can work on that as coaches. We showed we have resilience and fight and we need to build on that.”
How big a boost is it having Sam Lousi back?
DP: “He is always a big player for us. His skillset is different to many second rows out there, you can see he has played a lot of rugby league with his off-loading game out of contact and his presence is big as well in the group. As much as he doesn’t say much, he does carry that gravitas that he is a leader in the group. He was almost there last week, we could have rolled the dice and played him, but he had a few injuries last season so we wanted to make sure when he did come back, he is there to stay. Managing him coming back is important for us.”