PEEL'S PRIDE AS FAVOURITES END SCARLETS' PLAY-OFF HOPE

DWAYNE PEEL spoke of his pride despite the Scarlets being knocked out of the United Rugby Championship play-offs after a valiant defeat to top seeds Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.

- BEN JAMES

First-half tries from Tom Rogers and Blair Murray saw Dwayne Peel’s side trail by just a point at the break. However, the pressure told in the second-half as the league leaders pushed ahead - even if Johnny Williams’ late score did briefly threaten a comeback.

Having reached the play-offs after finishing eighth in the league, the Scarlets were given a tough trip to Dublin to start the play-offs.

And, while they'll be disappointed with how it unfolded - particularly the second-half which saw their discipline falter as they lost two players to yellow cards - they'll be able to reflect on an 80 minutes where they rattled Leinster and a season where they made big strides forward.

Speaking afterwards Peel said he was proud of his side's efforts.

"I'm proud of the season as a whole," he told BBC Wales. “Our big thing this year was we wanted to compete hard and I think we did that right up to the last minute of the last game.

“It was a tough game. At 15-14 at half-time, the first 10 minutes of that second-half, they probably got it technically and tactically right.

“We couldn't quite recover. We maybe didn’t have enough of the ball. I'm proud of the effort and the commitment we showed.