Dwayne Peel stays loyal to Bristol’s ambition

Dwayne PeelFormer Wales scrum-half Dwayne Peel is set to start next season with Bristol despite the club failing to win promotion to the Premiership.
Peel, 32, joined from but with the proviso that he could be loaned to a Premiership club if Bristol missed out on going up.
But the Welshman has opted to stay and Bristol first-team coach Sean Holley is hopeful another high-profile signing, prop forward Anthony Perenise, will follow suit.
Holley told The Rugby Paper: “They had the option to play the first part of the season with a Premiership club but Dwayne's decided to play here, so there's no issue there, and Anthony is back in on July 21 and we'll have discussions then.
“Anthony has yet to make a decision and could stay with Bath until Christmas, but Dwayne is training with us right now and he's a Bristol player.”
Peel's decision is welcome news for Bristol, who saw their immediate Premiership hopes go up in smoke at the hands of London Welsh. And Holley sees the recent signing of Wales international lock Ian Evans as another bold statement of intent.
Holley believes the arrivals of Evans, Ryan Jones and rising Welsh star Matthew Morgan reflects the current poor state of the game in Wales, with all three choosing to move outside the Principality and play their rugby in 's second tier.
Former Ospreys boss Holley said: “It's a reality and a statement of where Welsh regional and currently is. Some of these boys are not able to be remunerated in the first instance because Welsh rugby has a financial crisis, while some may have had enough of the Pro12 and all the travelling around Scotland, Ireland and .
“Maybe they're too used to the environment and the people around them and they want to freshen things up. From my experience, it's difficult to be a prophet in your own land and you seem to be very much more appreciated elsewhere.
“Ian Evans is a good signing and it's one that came up because of his Toulon predicament. It's a credit to Bristol and everyone working here that he's chosen Bristol because there were a lot of big clubs in different countries in for him.
“It's not just a money decision, a lot of clubs are well backed, but those players of a certain age want to be part of something which is going somewhere, has a vision and potential. Someone like Ian would have taken a long time over his decision.
“All of our major signings are well thought out and our due diligence has paid off.  Matthew Morgan's just played for Wales and all of a sudden Blues think ‘we'll have him', but where were they three, six or 12 months ago?”
Bristol kick off the season against , with those two sides expected to dominate the division. But Holley has warned Warriors boss Dean Ryan not to expect an easy ride from other teams in the ultra-competitive .
He said: “There are lots of sides to keep an eye on. and Plymouth have recruited well, Bedford will improve, Cornish Pirates are always up there and and Leeds had great seasons and will be there or thereabouts.
“It's a good league and Worcester won't find it easy. They shouldn't just be looking at Bristol, there's a lot of banana skins along the way and it's the teams that manage the season and come out freshest that will fight it out.
“We'll look to improve on last season and we feel we've got a better squad.”
NEALE HARVEY

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