Fresh twist as Peel ready to join Scarlets

DWAYNE Peel is set to be released from his Cardiff Blues contract to join the Scarlets coaching team, with Matt Sherratt lined up to return to the Arms Park.

Former Wales and Lions scrum-half Peel was due to join the Blues coaching staff this summer from Ulster.

But it emerged last month that he was keen to take up a role with his former team, the Scarlets, instead.

That led to an impasse over the future of a man who played 76 times for Wales and started all three Tests on the 2005 Lions tour of New Zealand.

The Blues’ position was he had signed a three-year deal with them last November and was contracted from July 2021 until June 2024.

But there would also have been a realisation that it would be a difficult situation if Peel preferred to be elsewhere.

The challenge facing the Blues was to find an alternative attack coach to work with director of rugby Dai Young.

With Sherratt lined up for a move from Worcester, that looks to be resolved, meaning they can release Peel.

It remains to be seen what 39-yearold Peel’s job title will be at the Scarlets when he joins them ahead of next season. There had been suggestions he would become head coach, with Glenn Delaney taking on the role of director of rugby.

After retiring from playing, Peel had a year coaching with Bristol before joining Ulster in 2017.

He has built a good reputation in Belfast and is seen as one of the brightest young coaches in the business. Now he is heading back to the Scarlets, where he spent eight years as a player.

Sherratt previously spent two seasons at the Blues, working with Danny Wilson, who he had been alongside at Bristol. His time at the Arms Park culminated in the European Challenge Cup final victory over Gloucester in Bilbao in May 2018.