Squads morale

My own view is that we have the on & off field management to thank for this disparity. Someone has done a hell of a job keeping this squad of players focused on performance & improvement. I can sympathise wholeheartedly with the predicament that Dai Young & Booth have found themselves in. I leave out the Dragons because they seem destined for mediocrity which is not the fault of Flannagan but numerous bad appointment previously. 

I am usually at the front of the queue if I see poor rugby so let me be at the front of this particular queue in applauding the unseen & often unsung work being done at PYS. It warms the soul. 

My view is that Lee Blackett's arrival certainly helped Peel, but it was more down to Gareth Williams's work on defence (while maintaining discipline) that gelled the team on the pitch & enabled them to execute other parts of their game better. BTW, I loved seeing Blackett's reaction to Fifita's runaway try in Scotstoun being disallowed - I'm no lip-reader, but his views were very clear, and he's obviously feeling part of the set-up at the Parc. Ultimately, he came from a Head Coach role at Wasps, so only natural that he'd be looking for new opportunities at the same level.

The key difference I still see between Scarlets & the other Welsh pro sides is that we have a plan. We pretty much know our squad for next season, and have a seen a number of young players break through which affirms the next steps. The others are now haemorrhaging players and scrabbling around to fill key positions on the cheap. Scarlets actually have a multi-year business plan, as anyone might expect of a pro sports business, but, astonishingly, the others don't: Ospreys are managed hand to mouth by their generous-but-volatile owner, and Y11 are reportedly divesting ~2 years after investing; Cardiff look better on the face of it, for all the benevolence of the late, great Peter Thomas, but are still run like an amateur club and still have no long-term surety over their home ground (nor outside halves for next season ); and Dragons have two months to return to private ownership, although I'm sure Dai Buttress will have a plan ready to go once that's achieved.

It's no wonder that all this rubs off on player morale, and it's perhaps telling that Scarlets seem in better shape - it's not great for anyone, but we've given ourselves the best chance to not only survive but compete.