A 52-21 home loss to Bristol Bears on Saturday after a 45-10 drubbing at Union Bordeaux-Bègles in Round 3 left Scarlets three points adrift, denying them a place in the EPCR Challenge Cup knockout phase.

While the first hour at Parc y Scarlets in Round 4 contained much for Peel to be pleased about, the hosts’ finish left him frustrated.

He said: “We gave away points throughout the night too easily. When we got advantage on them, we gave up either a lost kick-off or a missed tackle or a poor exit, and let them back into it.

“I think the lesson for us is that we can’t afford to give points away easily after we’ve worked hard for our points.

“I’m sure when we reflect and look back, there will be some stuff where we say ‘that was better’, but 31 points in the last 20 minutes is pretty tough reading for us.

“The competition for us has been fractured at best and the last two weeks have been two meetings, but we move on now.”

Asked whether postponements due to Covid-19 cases had contributed to Scarlets’ poor finishes to games recently, Peel felt there were other issues too.

He said: “The lack of rugby is definitely a concern for everyone. We still have a number of injuries as well, especially in the back five of the scrum. But we have to cope with that and get on with it.”

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel reflected on a “fractured” Heineken Champions Cup campaign as the Welsh region finished bottom of Pool B to bow out of European competition for this season at the weekend.