Dragons v Scarlets, 30.12.2011 k.o 7.05pm

First topic message reminder :

Scarlets face a daunting task heading to Rodney Parade with only a 4 day turnaround after their hard fought derby win over the Ospreys.

The Scarlets have been training with two seperate 22's leading up to first the Ospreys and now the Dragons match, with many fringe players now getting a chance to prove themselves.

Scarlets team: 15 Dan Newton, 14 Viliame Iongi, 13 Adam Warren, 12 Gareth Maule (capt), 11 Andy Fenby, 10 Stephen Jones , 9 Rhodri Williams, 1 Phil John, 2 Ken Owens, 3 Deacon Manu, 4 Sione Timani, 5 Dominic Day, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 Johnathan Edwards, 8 Kieran Murphy.

Replacements: Emyr Phillips, Iestyn Thomas, Peter Edwards, Lou Reed, Richie Pugh, Gareth Davies, Aled Thomas, Daniel Evans.

George North and Mat Gilbert travel to Rodney Parade as 24th and 25th men.

Damien Welch and Liam Williams not considered due to injury, and Tavis Knoyle is not playing on medical grounds that he needs an operation early in the new year to stabalise a shoulder joint.

The Scarlets have not had an away win in the Pro12 this season.


Dragons Team: Martyn Thomas, Tonderai Chavhanga, Adam Hughes, Lewis Robling, Aled Brew, Jason Tovey; Wayne Evans; Nathan Williams, Lloyd Burns, Nathan Buck, Adam Jones, Rob Sidoli, Danny Lydiate, Gavin Thomas (c), Toby Faletau.

Replacements:
Steve Jones, Phil Price, Dan Way, Jevon Groves, Lewis Evans, Joe Bedford, Andy Tuilagi, Will Harries.

The Dragons make only one change on the bench to the side that faced the Blues. The Dragons will be determined to put an end to their current 5 match losing streak and provide the supporters at Rodney Parade with a first home win in the Pro12 since the end of September.

Cardiff Dave wrote:

manofgwent wrote:When can fingers be pointed at Darren Edwards?
We are tactically naive. We play rugby in the wrong areas and have done for a while. We aren't learning from our mistakes at all. We have mo cutting edge from our backs. We play too lateral. We have no kicking game and tonight you have to question why Steffan Jones (who had a blinder for Keys on boxing day) wasn't on the bench. We lack leadership .

Not sure you can blame Darren Edwards. Newport GD would have won easily had they had another recognised kicker even after all of the mistakes. So buy someone else who can kick is the answer. There's the problem. Cash.

No. Where was Steffan Jones? He played for Cross Keys Monday, so Flip what! He's a professional rugby player. If he was actually injured then for shame to the Fraggles for not looking to their Premiership teams for a kicking outside half. They are a region not a club ffs!

gcBlues wrote:Do dragon fans still think Brew should be in the wales squad? Did nothing this evening and was horrendous last week against the blues when he was outscored and outperformed by Cuthbert.

He's also not fully fit, nor hasn't been for at least a couple of weeks.

Glas a du wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

manofgwent wrote:When can fingers be pointed at Darren Edwards?
We are tactically naive. We play rugby in the wrong areas and have done for a while. We aren't learning from our mistakes at all. We have mo cutting edge from our backs. We play too lateral. We have no kicking game and tonight you have to question why Steffan Jones (who had a blinder for Keys on boxing day) wasn't on the bench. We lack leadership .

Not sure you can blame Darren Edwards. Newport GD would have won easily had they had another recognised kicker even after all of the mistakes. So buy someone else who can kick is the answer. There's the problem. Cash.

No. Where was Steffan Jones? He played for Cross Keys Monday, so Flip what! He's a professional rugby player. If he was actually injured then for shame to the Fraggles for not looking to their Premiership teams for a kicking outside half. They are a region not a club ffs!

Glas, as I said on the other thread: stop being a 2@ and do some research. Accusing us of not being a region because we missed some kicks is absurd. We've promoted from within the region loads. Steffan Jones was promoted from the Prem, as was Tovey, and last night Lewis Robling a fly half from the prem was promoted to 12 and then switched to 10 when Tovey went off. What more can we do? Have 15 premiership fly halves on the pitch?

Dreadful performance by the Dragons against a very weak Scarlets Second 15!

Some Dragons supporters on this site are cltching at straws, saying that if they had not lost Tovey, they would have won. But the Scarlets also missed a lot of kicks at goal. And don't forget Scarlets lost Steve Jones before kick off. If they were still playing now the Dragons backs would not have produced a try!

Dragons have some great players, Lydiate and Faletau in particular but they won't get success without an experienced coach. Bring in Kingsley or Lyn Jones, keep Darren as assistant, he may still make a pro coach with the right development.

As a Gwent exile I am an avid follower of the Dragons on TV but I am getting increasingly despondent with my team. I thought last night's performance awful. There seems little spirit in the side and no signs of leadership on the field. The match could have been won with 3 very kickable goals but the 3rd choice kicker seemed to lack the basic skills of his job. His confidence must have been destroyed after the first 2/3 misses and I am amazed that none of the other professional players on the pitch was not considered worthy to take his place. Who takes the decision?

A lot of Dragons fans still thought a weakened Scarlets team would be capable of beating us. My mate took 9/4 that the Scarlets would win.
If anyone on here watches us regularly they'll know that last nights performance was typical of how we've been playing. We're doing very well at beating ourselves.
It's very poor that our 1st tram can't beat a 2nd string at home. It was obvious that Robling was also covering 10. He's no different to Steffan or Matthew jones. They're all playing regularly in the prem and are all capable kickers. I think nerves got the better of him.

On Cardiff Dave's comments. Buy someone else who can kick. Genius mate. Genius!!! Robling kicks for Newport. He would have been expected to knock those over. The Blues bought themselves a kicker to come in for the awful Ceri Sweeney and just look hiw negative the Blues were with Parks at 10 last season.
Also. We were very unlucky that Adam Hughes limped off. He's our Leigh Halfpenny. At the start of the season nobody was saying we needed a kicker. We have Steffan and Tovey and Tovey's percentages are right up there. We needed a ball carrier in midfield. We signed one, but ask any Dragons fan and they'll tell you we need a tight head and a 2nd row.
Also I'm not blaming Edwards, but fingers will be pointed and you have to wonder about our decision making and our lack of threat behind the scrum, when on paper it looks good back line.
We thoroughly deserved to lose last night and we really don't need to be playing the Ospreys next week. We need a run of wins and build some confidence. We're missing leadership and a cutting edge.

Scarlets home and away, no tries. Blues away, no tries. Exeter home and away, 1 try. Glasgow, 1 try. Last 6 games, 2 tries. That is very very worrying.

Scarlets B team won i had a good time,Dragons fans full of banter as usual, ref didn't help the spectical he was pretty rubbish all round.

Personally that was a shocking game for us, we had 65% possesion and hardly greated any scoring chances.

We had a 2stone per man advantage in the scrum for FFS and still didn't gain vast superiority.

I have spoken to guys on here and freinds I know who go to Dave regulalry and something is missing there at the moment.

Even over the seasons when we have been poor we still seemed to be able to score tries and score them well and know when to attack etc. Even that seems to have gone now coupled with out poor scrum and front row efforts.

I was amazed that the Dragons could be so poor, as much as I enjoy going to Rodney Parade I really hope the Ospreys do a number on you, but the 4 day break won't help the Ospreys at all.
Still I will be in in the Hazell stand.

Dragons need leaders on the pitch and I have seen only Brew of our senior players standing up.Who was meant to be Captain?Our lot need firing up else we will all too soon lose our nuggets.Maybe propping up the Italians and Connacht might shame us into some performances!!
Bring back Colin Charvis.

Taffin,

Charvis certainly gave us something that seems to be missing, I was happy for Edwards to get job despite hoping Kingsley would have got it but something going wrong there at moment.

Basic skill levels are poor and discipline very bad at the moment, even with 2 stone a man heavier we did get dominance at scrum time.

Really don't know what's going on with the Dragons at the moment. The team has barely changed from the one that was scoring tries for fun and getting BP wins over the likes of the O's last season, if anything we are now stronger, yet at the moment we don't look like scoring a try. Up until the end of last season as a home supporter you'd turn up at RP pretty much expecting a win, now I turn up wondering if we are going to pick up a LBP. Ospreys at home is always my favourite game of the season, this year I'm not sure if I even want to go on Friday
I just hope DE has the balls to make some changes in the squad. Bring back Matthew Jones, give young Jon Evans a go at 9 he can do no worse than Wayne, I know Groves hasn't played lock on a regular basis since he captained the U20's but why not give him a go and give Sid a rest. We need some rotation to stop complacency setting in.

rucking,

Wheres Coombes at the moment is he injured?

Dragons seem to fall at the final pass a it too often. They play some good rugby, they do create very good opportunities, but often can't finish the last ten yards...!

I agree with jiffy's comments during the commentary that the dragons aren't utilising Martyn Thomas's pace entering the line.

Coombs is injured, out for a good few months probably until the end of the season. Same injury and time scale for Scott Morgan.

On a good note. Tovey says he's fit for Friday.

That's is good news.

mckay1402 wrote:who was that woman they showed? She was rather loverly...

The lady in question is Adam Hughes girlfriend