Gloucester moved into control of Pool three of the European Challenge Cup as they secured a convincing bonus-point victory, running in five tries to one against their Anglo-Welsh rivals.
First-half scores from scrum-half Caolon Englefield, flanker Jack Clement, and full-back George Barton put the home side in control in front of a buoyant West Country crowd 19-0 at the break.
Replacement hooker Seb Blake secured the bonus point soon after the restart before Christian Wade’s counter attacking late score added gloss to the scoreline.
For Scarlets, Centre Eddie James’ second-half effort was their only reply on a tough evening for Peel’s side who would fail to deliver at key moments in the contest.
The West Wallians would have chances of their own in the first period but would be unable to show the same finishing quality as Gloucester who would run out comfortable winners.
“I was really looking forward to the game this week and felt we could give a good account of ourselves,” said Peel post-match.
“I felt we had a lot of endeavour in the game but accuracy when we got behind Gloucester, we weren’t able to capitalise on points.
“We spent a lot of time in there, especially in that first period where we turned a few lineouts over early. Accuracy with a few offloads cost us.
“After being on their line, it probably was summed up with that length of the field try from Christian [Wade].
The defeat also saw a couple of casualties with Wales fly-half forced off after just 11 minutes with a shoulder injury, whilst both Ioan Lloyd and Blair Murray both picked up knocks.
“He’s with the medics so we don’t know how bad it is, but Sam is a tough boy and doesn’t usually come off unless it’s something bad,” explained Peel.
“It is a big loss as he has been a big leader for us and has trained well in terms of preparation this week. It’s really disappointing to lose him.
“Ioan [Lloyd] had a knock before that which we are tracking as well. It made it a bit disjointed and later in the game in terms of impact and subs.
“Blair Murray was struggling a bit and left us unable to make that impactful sub like Joe Roberts earlier than we would have liked.
“It was one of those days, we are obviously disappointed with the result, but we have been really competitive in our losses this year, this is one game we were not.
“It’s a good occasion and we have had some fantastic travelling fans here who sung all game to be fair to them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do the business for them.
“Looking at the two games [left in the Pool] at the start of the week, we knew we had to win one of them.
“We haven’t done that tonight, but next week we are at home and want to make amends.”
[Lead image: Scarlets Rugby]
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