Scarlets players have been celebrating their release from Covid quarantine by reuniting with their families and soaking up home comforts they had missed after their nightmare trip to South Africa.
The Llanelli-based region, together with Cardiff Rugby, were in South Africa to play United Rugby Championship matches when the new Omicron Covid variant emerged and the country was put onto the UK Government's red travel list.
That meant the entire travelling party - 32 players and 15 staff - had to isolate for 10 days in a government-approved hotel on their return from the Rainbow Nation, which the Scarlets completed just outside Belfast before arriving back in Wales in the early hours of Friday morning.
They were then reunited with their loved ones, who they have the weekend to spend with before returning to training on Monday.
Wales and Scarlets centre Jonathan Davies celebrated being back in his homeland by going for a dip in the sea in what must have been a nippy December experience.
Davies' wife Louise shared pictures of the pair enjoying a sunny winter's day in Barry with their dog while Davies took the plunge in the water at Jackson's Bay.
"Got our best friend back," she wrote.
As for Wales and Scarlets full-back Liam Williams, he was reunited with fiancée Sophie Harries and the pair headed to the model's hometown of Chepstow to see their beloved pooch Benji.
"So nice to have @sanjaywills home finally after being stuck in quarantine for what feels like forever... first stop was always to go see our hansoms", she wrote on Instagram, before enjoying a trip to Chepstow Castle.
Kieran Hardy was reunited with his fiancée Ellie McLean and their daughter Piper, who turned three earlier this week while the Wales and Scarlets scrum-half was still in quarantine.
Ellie shared an adorable clip of the father and daughter fast asleep after some much-needed family time.
After a much-needed few days of rest and getting back to normal, the region's players will head to Parc y Scarlets on Monday when they will begin preparations to face French Top 14 leaders Bordeaux-Begles next Sunday (December 19) in the European Champions Cup.
They had been forced to forfeit their European opener against Bristol amid player safety concerns, with head coach Dwayne Peel saying it would have been "unforgivable" if any of his players picked up an injury had their Bears match gone ahead this weekend.
Peel explained the reasoning behind the decision to forego the match, with player welfare at the front of his mind.
"I think it comes down to wellbeing," he said. "Wellbeing of the group to start, that's the most important thing for us.
"Our ability to go and play that game and perform on the best stage we can... we've been in isolation for two weeks, and the duty of care to the players is first and foremost to us.
"We are unable to do any meaningful training. We are obviously doing stretch bands in the room here.
"We get 30 minutes a day out in the car park which is very small and segregated obviously. The wellbeing of the team for us is first and foremost.
"I personally feel we're not in a position to go out there and perform to what we expect of ourselves and the club and the supporters expect, but it's a player welfare situation where it's dangerous - and for us to pick up injuries and so forth in these circumstances would be unforgivable if we were going to put ourselves at risk there."
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