Scarlets coach Dwayne Peel lamented his side’s huge loss to the Vodacom Bulls in their opening Vodacom United Rugby Championship match in Pretoria on Sunday, but said it was a learning curve that they would need as they head to face the DHL Stormers in Cape Town this weekend.
Peel is without 10 regulars who are either injured, or recovering from Welsh international duty at the World Cup and knows that the tour was always going to test his team. But he believes they will learn vital lessons that will hold them in good stead for the rest of the competition.
“We had a lesson in execution,” Peel said. “The Bulls were very clinical, especially in that first 25 minutes, they punished every error we made.
“We came back into it and I’m disappointed we didn’t get the bonus point for four tries, but at the end of the day we didn’t really deserve it.
“The reality is not many sides come here and win. Some good sides have been sent packing here.
“I thought we gifted the Bulls some soft tries early in the first and second half and there were a few execution things in attack we need to look at. We did get behind them on occasions, scored some nice tries, but we also wasted opportunities in their 22.
“We are obviously disappointed, Loftus is always a tough place to play, it was a scorching day as well which took its toll on us. We catch a plane down to Cape Town and it’s back to work. We review and get on with it.”
Peel said the team need to take the experience in their stride and move on, as they need to put up a better performance against the Stormers.
“For us, it is not the end of the world, we need to lick our wounds, stay tight and move on. We are not going to dwell on it. You get a lot out of these trips and this young group will learn a lot from that experience. There are a lot of young men here who won’t be the first to experience that coming to Loftus.
“You have to remember, we were also without a number of players, the World Cup boys with Wales, Josh Macleod, Vaea Fifita, Ken Owens, Steff Evans, Dan Jones, who are big parts of this group, who will boost us.”
Team captain Jonathan Davies believes the team need to be smarter against the Stormers.
“We probably gave them too much respect at the start of the game, we fought back, but we have to cut out the errors. A good team takes their chances and that is what the Bulls did. We have got to take a look at ourselves and be better,” he said.
“We knew if we kept ball we would cause problems, we always do that, but credit to the Bulls they put us under pressure and we need to be smarter. It is the first game of the season and a lot of rugby to be played.”
The Scarlets face the Stormers at Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch on Saturday.