Dwayne Peel's Legacy

With Peel joining Bristol, he's bringing to and end a 6 season stay with Sale.

Despite the loss his talent has been to the Scarlets and Wales since 2008, he never really seemed to demand the recall with his performances.

As someone who has only see him play in fits and bursts on television, and occasionally from the bench with Wales, since he left the Scarlets, I was wondering how he will be perceived as his career winds down, and finally ends. There's little doubt that he was one of the best half backs in the world around the time of the Grand Slam in 2005: with a bullet of a pass, his understanding with Stephen Jones and, crucially, his dictation of the pace of the game with quick taps and snipes, he was perhaps the most important player in that side for the style they played.

Whilst injury and a poor Welsh team didn't help up until Gatland's arrival, whereafter Mike Phillips was favoured at 9, there's been a significant proportion of Peel's career that has seen him happy to accept- or at least do nothing to try and reverse- the mediocrity and exclusion from international rugby he slipped into.

Which is where I bring in Sale fans. I'd love to hear what you have to say about him. Laziness and time of day means I can't be bothered to do any actual research, but I believe he has struggled to nail down the starting shirt over the years, being rotated with Richard Wigglesworth for a while (?)

If Sale fans could provide an analysis of his time with you, I'd really appreciate it, thinking back to when he first joined, the promise/potential of him in a more star-studded Sale side, through to this season and his departure. I just wonder whether he ever reproduced a run of form that, had he been playing in Wales, may have seen him play for the national side again: if he were English, do you think he would have got in any of your teams of the last 6 years? It would be good to also hear from non-Sale fans, fans who have seen him play your team in the Premiership: what did you make of him?

I'm perhaps too young to really appreciate or judge Howley, and for me Peel's quite easily the best Welsh scrum half I've seen in my lifetime. He may well be playing back in the Premiership with Bristol next season, but the chance that he is playing Championship rugby is all but an admission of winding down (Ryan Jones' move is more worrying in this regard). Peel reportedly had several opportunities to return to Wales over the years, yet turned them down: it's slightly disappointing his swansong (although he is only 32- a year, nearly to the day, older than Mike Phillips) wasn't with one of the regions, eventhough the Scarlets, and Wales generally, have several decent or promising scrum halves and it isn't a position of weakness. Nor am I advocating he should have necessarily been played more for Wales; he didn't perform when coming off the bench, although much like James Hook, when you're not favoured, Gatland puts these players into disadvantageous positions- either against average teams, playing in average/young Welsh teams, or a few minutes here and there off the bench.

Anyway, would be good to hear how he is viewed by Sale fans!

Not a Sale fan of course, but for a few years Peel was the best scrum half in the AP. He had some great displays at Welford Road (in losing causes) and a couple of those rank higher than anything I have seen from a visiting scrum half (ahead of Ruan Piennaar, Morgan Parra and Danny Care who have all had MotM performances).