Dragons 10 - 16 Dragons Premiership XV - Lol

Well.... The Dragons brought a mix and match team of players from their Premiership clubs within their region and the hotch poch team managed to turn the region's team over at home. So well done to the lambs to the slaughter from Cross Keys, Newport and Bedwas, you did your clubs proud.

NEWPORT Gwent Dragons head coach Darren Edwards remains upbeat and praised his teams attitude and commitment. Thank god the professionals didn't win god knows what Edwards might of said!


Dragons team: D Evans, T Prydie, P Leach, J Dixon, M Poole, S Jones, J Evans, A Coundley, H Gustafson, D Way, I Nimmo, A Coombs (capt), J Groves, D Waters, T Brown. Replacements all used: S Parry, N Williams, T Ryan, J Tyler, H Stoddart, I Jones, W Evans, L Robling, W Harries, A Tuilagi.

Dragons scorers: Try – Tom Brown, Conversion – Steffan Jones, Penalty – S Jones.

Gwent Select team: G O’Driscoll, K Baller, A Awcock, R Wardle, E Frewen, R Powell, R Downes, R Cornock, G Price, K Gaye, D Hodge, C Lodge, P Sargent, R Nash (capt), J Thomas. Replacements all used: R Hutchinson, A Lott, M Jones, K Maiden, C Attwell, A Powell, A Quick, D Gunter, A Davies, M John.

Gwent Select scorers: Try – Richard Powell, Conversion – R Powell, Penalties – R Powell.

Referee: Neil Hennessy (WRU)

There's already a thread on this genius.

And a hotch potch side beat Dragons at home but Ospreys cant

Could you point out how many full time Dragons players are there Shifty?

munkian wrote:And a hotch potch side beat Dragons at home but Ospreys cant

Got to love a trier though. Thought the Ospreys would have bigger fish to fry than this, like maybe celebrating their 8000 muted season ticket holders more.

Or beating The HMRC's amateur team

It was far, far from the Dragons team. With all those new signings, who knows what the starting team will be. I don't see how someone could make a WUM of this, I only see it as a possitive for all the players, coaches and teams of Gwent.

Morgannwg makes an excellent point. There are obviously 40+ players in the Gwent area of similar standard. And this should be noted.

It's never good to lose a pre season game for obvious motivational/confidence reasons, especially to a scratch team of players operating at a level below you, but the Dragons lost to a Gwent Premiershiup XV at the start of the 2004/05 season and we still finished 4th in the league. Actually, looking at the results over the last 10 years we don't seem to do too well in pre-season games, often struggling against English Championship sides (e.g. Cornish Pirates) or losing to Preimership sides (Worcester, London Irish, Bath, Saracens).

Part of the problem for me is that the Dragons traditionally use these games to try new players, new combos, etc. I can understand why, but sometimes I think it would be better to have decided on your first team with a couple of training games behind closed doors so that the first team can get a couple run outs in the pre-season freindlies (with more chance of actually winning) and this means they can hit the ground running on the first game of the season. I suspect we'll chop and change for all 3 pre-season games (Castre and LI to come) and the first game of the season will be the first time the chosen side has had a chance to play together. First up in the league is Zebre so it could be worse, but for me I'd like to see a side that's had a few runs together going out first game.

After Zebre we have Leinster away then Blues at home - we need to get our poop nailed down during the first match or its another painful start to the season

Griff - Dragons are playing at Biarritz not Castre in a psf

Sorry Dragon, memory went for a bit! It's the 'Olympique' bit that gor me!

We'll have Brew runnign against us then - A good scrap between him and Pooley

Griff wrote:Sorry Dragon, memory went for a bit! It's the 'Olympique' bit that gor me!

no worries Griff,easy done

munkian wrote:There's already a thread on this genius.

I know that Munkian but the score wasn't highlighted neither was the pathetic attempt by Edwards to big his players up after such a shocking loss. How the hell can anything positive come out of throwing together some players from Newport, Cross Keys and Bedwas and seeing then turn over a region on their own patch. It should of been 30-0 at least.

Granted what's left of the Dragons star players were not in the side namely Lydiate and Toby but Jesus they fell apart last season it horrific fashion and if this is any indication they will pick up where they left off last season.

Some people mentioned the Ospreys and I will point out we beat the Dragons 31-12 and 26-21 at home last season. Though we did lose the away game when Dan Biggar missed the kick at the end. I was at all 3 games.

I'm all for being positive but call a spade a spade, the Dragons players need a boot up the backside for this not praise. If Manchester United lost at home to Oldham then you'd hardly see any praise for his team from Alex Fergusson!

Do you really expect anything less from Darren Edwards? That guy tries to spin everything into a positive. I have no patience with him after last season.

I'd still be surprised if this made a difference to our season, bar certain players have been highlighted as equal to/better than their equivalent from Saturday.

That said, as dump as the Dragons were they only lost to an interception. (bit of the Dopey Darren in me too).

Shifty - to be fair mate it was the first pre-season friendly, and a number of those Dragons that were feilded were new additions (six or seven, i think) and Gus was being played at hooker for the first time. This was basically a Probables (some) Vrs Possibles match, and that adds an extra bit of drive to the possibles as they may well get to be bench warmers / LV= Cup starters as opposed to LV= Cup bench warmers.

Also the Dragons are doing something that embraces the region as a region, which is a good thing to see. I would love to see the Scarlets Vrs a Dyfyd Select XV.

Also Shifty, this 2 scratch sides in their 1st pre-season friendly, the score is largely irrelevant in these games to be honest.

And yes SS it would be really good to see a Scarlets XV vs a Dyfed XV, be really interesting

I'm still not seeing how it was a 'shocking' loss

*it's a pre season game
*Used to see how injured players are doing
*As stated above - used to see how current players are doing and what new players could be recruited

Yes, a win was expected but it's hardly a portent of doom, it was a game at a fun day used to make a bit of money and hopefully get some more casual fans at the games.

If we lose our first league homegame then I will be slagging the team with the best of them but unitl then keep your panties on and lets see if you can beat us at home this season

Shifty wrote:

munkian wrote:There's already a thread on this genius.

I know that Munkian but the score wasn't highlighted neither was the pathetic attempt by Edwards to big his players up after such a shocking loss. How the hell can anything positive come out of throwing together some players from Newport, Cross Keys and Bedwas and seeing then turn over a region on their own patch. It should of been 30-0 at least.

Granted what's left of the Dragons star players were not in the side namely Lydiate and Toby but Jesus they fell apart last season it horrific fashion and if this is any indication they will pick up where they left off last season.

Some people mentioned the Ospreys and I will point out we beat the Dragons 31-12 and 26-21 at home last season. Though we did lose the away game when Dan Biggar missed the kick at the end. I was at all 3 games.

I'm all for being positive but call a spade a spade, the Dragons players need a boot up the backside for this not praise. If Manchester United lost at home to Oldham then you'd hardly see any praise for his team from Alex Fergusson!

You didn't answer my question earlier in the thread either. You want possitives? How about all the clubs the players came from are our clubs? You can bet that Cross Keys will be flying the Welsh flag in the B&I cup again and your vulture team will be sniffing around the players like they usually do.

Now I agree the Dragons need a lot of work, especially after last season, but why would and Osprey supporter be so concerned? It was just a pre-season game. It's not like this 'Pre-season ... Lyon 38-10 Ospreys' hindered your team last season (well, apart from in Europe maybe?).

Exactly, jog on back to Scum V if you want to slag off the Dragons with all the other old rugby snobs.

You should only support where you are from, I'm a Newport boy so I'm going to support them through thick and thin, we can't all be born within a massively funded yet still under achieving region.

At the end of the day most of the Dragons were either playing semi pro or injured for most of last season whilst 12 of the Gwent Select have been training full time with the region over the summer. Several of them have also played for the Dragons before. All the proceeds went to the clubs involved so only a tool would think this day was a bad thing. Yes Shifty that means you.

I will say this, if Tuilagi doesn't shape up by mid season he needs the boot. He's fat and out of shape with feet for hands at the moment. I know his Brother WON'T pass but I'm sure he has the skills TO pass.

Totally agree we don't need him. From what I've seen a Dixon/Leach and Hughes partnership is the way forward. It's frustrating though as Andy has shown glimmers of potential but there is no point persisting with him beyond this season if he doesn't get consistent a bit sharpish.

The most frustrating thing about Tuilagi (apart from the aforementioned feet for hands) is that we change the way we play to accommodate him. We develop a love for bringing him back on the crash ball when there's space on the outside. I wouldn't mind if this approach was working for us, but it's not (or wasn't last season).

I dunno about that we've needed a bit of bulk in the centre for a long time and it's always useful to have the option of a big ball carrier. Think apart from Andy the next biggest is Leach. We've had some cracking runners in the centre in the years but are always noticeably smaller and we're really gonna miss Brew's presence in the back line this season.

The option of a big ball carrier is fine, but not when the opposition know he's going to get the ball all the time. It's a bit like Wales's over-reliance on Jamie Roberts, except that Jamie Roberts is a slightly better player than Tuilagi.

My arse is a slighlty better player than Tuilagi at the moment. Lets hope running up and down Merthyr Mawr has done some good.

Your arse can catch a rugby ball?!

Prehensile. It's all in the glutes

You should join a circus!

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:The option of a big ball carrier is fine, but not when the opposition know he's going to get the ball all the time. It's a bit like Wales's over-reliance on Jamie Roberts, except that Jamie Roberts is a slightly better player than Tuilagi.

Well yeah, I agree Tuilagi may not be the answer but the principle is sound. Knowing what the Jaw is going to do doesn't help you stop him, and it has the added bonus of protecting the fly half. A decent crash baller would answer a lot of our problems. How big is Munkian's arse I wonder? Can it take a couple of defenders out of the line?

It comes down to when you bring him (or anyone) back on the crash ball. I remember one clear occasion last season when we were in the opposition 22 and had at least a man on the left with a clear run to the line and we brought Tuilagi back inside instead.

I can't speak for Munkian's arse. It might already be contracted to another side.

You also need to use a crash ball player (especially an unskilled one like Tuilagi) as a dummy runner coming back in on the inside. Then it'll open the door for your exciting runners

PS Didn't realise Munkians arse had already been sold down the 'Port

Stop talking about me arse behind my back

Yeah, that made sense

Chav needs the ball more - his first touch of it against the Blues and he scores.

munkian wrote:Stop talking about me arse behind my back

Yeah, that made sense

Chav needs the ball more - his first touch of it against the Blues and he scores.

I thought your arse was always behind your back? ....

I hope we make better use of him this season. He's an absolute flier but we need to work him into a bit of space. He's not physical enough otherwise.

Smirnoffpriest wrote:

munkian wrote:Stop talking about me arse behind my back

Yeah, that made sense

Chav needs the ball more - his first touch of it against the Blues and he scores.

I thought your arse was always behind your back? ....

No, it's always below your back.

Yeah I hope they've worked hard on Chavy over the summer and he comes back even more dangerous (though not against the Scarlets!) - he was a very good signing, and should get the ball more often now that Brew isn't there.

Prydie is a lump if he plays on the wing. Not bad to have some variation in our wingers.

Yeah you've got some decent options everywhere - how do you see Wayne Evans doing this season?

He's well ahead of Joe Bedford in my book, but Bedford got a fair bit of game time last season. We've got Jonathan Evans too and I'd rather he was given a go than Bedford.

Yeah def either one would be better than Bedford, you seem to have good options at 10, centre and FB/wings, do you think that Wayne (or Johnny) will provide them with good enough service, and play well enough for the backline to do well.

We'll find out soon enough!

Who would you say is going to be your first choice scrum half down at Parc y Scarlets this season? I've heard Tavis Knoyle is back but I really like the look of Gareth Davies, he's a bit raw still but so much potential.

Didn't realise Shifty was Alyn Davies till I saw that Valleys post again. Used to find him a slightly more knowledgable and decent enough poster, before he changed his name. Obviously trying to be clever now, as I'm sure him in his old guise wouldn't be creaming his pants over a friendly, particularly one not involving his region.

Way of the world now I guess. Enjoy slime balling a poor innocent worker the next time you come to RP now, won't you Alyn

We do need a 12 to smash it up as last season Tondi was getting man and ball. We always went wide to early (when tuilagi wasn't playing).
Did he look in good shape v the Gwent 15?

We can talk backs all day long but will they get any decent ball? I really can't see the forward providing a good platform. We have to young tens with potential but they will struggle playing on the back foot.

It's probably why J Evans won't be in the 22 as he would get smashed at ruck time. Wayne n Bedford had no protection last season.
I'd love to see 9/10 of Jonny and Steffan but until we get the pack it's irrelivent.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:We'll find out soon enough!

Who would you say is going to be your first choice scrum half down at Parc y Scarlets this season? I've heard Tavis Knoyle is back but I really like the look of Gareth Davies, he's a bit raw still but so much potential.

Knoyle definately, I think now that he's recovered from his injury you'll see him back on form after a poor, injury ravaged last season. I do however like G Davies a lot and think he will get a good lot of game time and provide a great battle with Knoyle for the 9 shirt, I just feel Knoyle is the better currently and more experienced (at what 25?).

I still would have liked us to keep Liam Davies (even though he would have been third choice), he brought a lot of good things to the Scarlets - the Dragons could have done with picking him up and jettisoning Bedford.

Bedford is another player that needs to shape up or ship out.


I really really hope our backs get a decent platform to work from, not hugely optimistic though

If we end up getting Iestyn Thomas as scrum coach, that could be a boost for us. We'll have to wait and see how the new signings go, too.

Unfortunately I really can't see the Dragons getting much of a platform with a pretty weak/young front row and an aging 2nd row. But I really hope they can, and that they don't miss Gavin Thomas too much, as they've got a lot of young exciting talent coming through