Scarlets welcomed the new year in with maximum points in a convincing derby day win over against the league’s bottom side to move up to sixth in the standings.
Bouncing back from the last-gasp defeat against the Ospreys last time out, returning Wales wing Blair Murray scored twice in a dominant first-half display, with skipper Josh Macloed also going over.
Ellis Mee secured the bonus-point after the break before a mini Dragons reprieve threatened signs of a comeback with Taine Basham and Wales under-20 starlet Huw Anderson crossing for the visitors.
It would though be a false dawn as the home side secured their fourth win in nine outings to move back with the play-off placings.
Ahead of crucial European ties with Gloucester and RC Vannes, and a visit from Edinburgh to Llanelli in the URC to finish block two, Peel feels buoyant that his side is moving in the right direction.
“It was an important game for us in terms of picking up points, the league positions are so tight at the minute,” said Peel in his post match press conference.
“We’ve lost four games this season where there has only been a five-point difference in the whole total, so picking up that win was important for us.
“I think we played some good stuff, especially in that first 50 minutes, we were clinical.
“Against the Ospreys we made five line breaks in the first half and didn’t finish any of them off and so it was important to finish off our chances and that’s what we did.
“The last 30 minutes was scrappy, there was a lack of discipline at times and some decisions were made that could have gone either way.
“We’ve been in games for 70 or 80 minutes and today we won the first 50 minutes of the game and then maybe took our foot off the pedal.
“It’s important that we look at that and that it doesn’t happen again as there are great teams out there who are able to maintain their standard and pressure and that’s maybe one of the targets that we need to work on.
“We have another important game in the URC against Edinburgh in a few weeks and two big games in Europe before that.
“But we are up to sixth in the table, we will take the points and move on.”
[Lead image: Scarlets Rugby]
