By Steffan Thomas
Dwayne Peel has been labelled a winner and backed to become a major success after being appointed head coach of the Scarlets.
The Wales and British & Irish Lions scrum-half will be the number one coach at the Scarlets after they dramatically parted ways with Glenn Delaney less than an hour after their derby win over the Ospreys last weekend.
Only three weeks ago they announced Peel was to work underneath Delaney who was to be promoted to the role of director of rugby.
That mystery remains unexplained, but Scarlets general manager of rugby Jon Daniels insists Peel will be the main man in Llanelli next season.
“He’s a winner and he’s not afraid to say that he’s a winner which is important,” said Daniels.
“A real strength of his is his commitment to hard work, standards in the environment. So those are the things in terms of the non-technical side which make Dwayne a really strong head coach candidate for us and that’s what we are backing that he’ll bring the team going forward.
“He will bring a lot of energy to the role. He’s somebody who has taken himself out of his comfort zone in order to develop himself as a coach to get as many experiences as he can before taking this step.”
There have been questions surrounding Peel’s lack of experience as a head coach, having previously been attack coach at both Bristol and Ulster respectively.
The Scarlets, who have the highest playing budget of all four Welsh regions, have endured a disappointing season with a 50-point home defeat to Sale Sharks in the last 16 of the Heineken Champions Cup a real turning point.
But Daniels has no concerns regarding the 39-year-old Peel’s suitability for the job.
“Absolutely, yes I’m perfectly comfortable with that,” said Daniels when asked whether Peel can be a successful head coach.
“Dwayne knows as well – and this is something we all have to come to terms with – is you can’t just go and throw the ball around and score tries in games of rugby.
“There is graft to be done and there are systems and structures to put in place. I’m confident that balance will be right, moving forward.”
As it stands Peel will be inheriting a Scarlets coaching team which includes attack coaches Richard Whiffin and David Flanagan, forwards coach Richard Kelly and scrum coach Ben Franks.
And Daniels revealed the Scarlets have made it a priority to appoint an experienced defence coach to work alongside Peel.
He said: “Looking at the group that we’ve got and Dwayne’s skillset, probably the ideal candidate would have some runs on the board but also have a defence specialism.
“We are at the stage where we are receiving and taking potential candidates, but we haven’t got any further than that yet.
“Glenn was still actively coaching defence. It is recognition that it’s a gap that has been left now with Glenn’s departure.”