Davies was confirmed on Tuesday as interim director of rugby until the end of the season<\/a>, stepping in above Peel after a difficult campaign that has yielded just two wins. While Peel remains head coach, Davies now carries full accountability for performance, results and selection.<\/p>\nWhile Davies accepted Peel may not have welcomed the news initially, he praised the 43-year-old\u2019s response and he revealed he contacted him personally before accepting the role officially.<\/p>\n
\u201cDwayne has been brilliant,\u201d Davies said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably not great for him and he probably didn\u2019t want to see me in here on Tuesday. I understand that \u2013 it is what it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he\u2019s a passionate Scarlet. He knows himself that a lot of the operational work he\u2019s had to do has taken him away from where he needs to be. Now we\u2019ve taken that pressure away and he\u2019s allowed to do what he\u2019s really good at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking about the process, Davies said Peel was the first person he contacted before agreeing to return to Parc y Scarlets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a whirlwind,\u201d Davies said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board had a review and felt there was a need for new impetus at a crucial time in Welsh rugby. I was contacted and asked if I\u2019d be interested, and it didn\u2019t take me very long to make a decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis club is very dear to me and so are the people in it. I\u2019ve worked with Dwayne previously and I know the pressures that come with running a rugby club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davies acknowledged the modern head coach role has become all-consuming, something he believes has taken Peel away from his greatest strengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scope of the modern rugby team is massive and I know Dwayne will have been taken away from a lot of what he\u2019s really good at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I spoke to Dwayne before making any decisions and was very clear that I wanted him to continue and be part of anything I was involved in. He agreed to that in terms of moving forward together.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that stage I said, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ll do it. I\u2019ll come back, because I have a passion for this place.\u2019<\/p>\n
“On the two previous occasions I left the team in a good place and that\u2019s my aim this time as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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New interim Scarlets director of rugby Nigel Davies(Image: @rileySportsPhotography)<\/p>\n
Davies was also keen to stress the clarity of the new working relationship, insisting there is no overlap or confusion over roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty straightforward,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom day one I was clear that if I was to come in, I had to have complete accountability for performance and selection. People need to know there\u2019s a clear line of responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin that, a big part of my role is to work with the coaches. Dwayne is still head of that coaching group and he\u2019ll be 100% on the field now. He\u2019s an excellent coach and that\u2019s what we need him doing, working with the players 24\/7.\u201d<\/p>\n
Davies says the coaching group have embraced the change, with the restructure also freeing them up to focus purely on rugby.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of quality coaches within this group and now they can just coach,\u201d he added. \u201cPerformance and results are my responsibility, but in the short time I\u2019ve been here, I trust them to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for whether this marks a longer-term return to professional rugby, Davies stopped short of committing beyond this season \u2013 but left the door open.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, possibly not,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I am old enough now to know that the phrase \u2018never say never\u2019 is very true.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Scarlets this week announced a significant change, with Nigel Davies returning to the club above Dwayne Peel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,19428,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-370481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-scarlets","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Dwayne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_150225-Munster-v-Scarlets-United-Rugby-Championship-.jpg\")
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