Gwent Dragons 2015/16 thread

by Luckless Pedestrian Wed Feb 10, 2016 3:51 pm

First topic message reminder :

With Warburton, I can only conclude that they like him as captain because of how he deals with referees. He's very respectful towards them.

by **RiscaGame** Fri Feb 26, 2016 11:10 am

I didn't think there was particularly any positives. Scrum held up ok, that's probably one.

Other than that, wasn't impressed at all. I know Sarel seems to be held in high regard, but I wasn't very impressed by him again. I feel like with backs currently as small as ours, we need quicker ball than what we get and he's part of that problem. For all his zipping around, he doesn't really do much and I think he takes too much on and is probably looking to pick a gap too often.

That was a Glasgow team who were poor last night and they were still always going to win that once they scored their first try, because it was obvious we wouldn't score one. I found our last two penalty attempts (I think) strange too as Angus and Carl Meyer are maybe not the most accurate from range (probably none of our kickers are), but it seems that we hoped we'd score three rather than try going for a lineout.

Nick Scott did nothing again. A better winger than him might've scored yesterday, when he made a complete hash of his kick through. He's a wasted signing.

Other than that, I'd probably need to watch it back again to form better opinions, but I don't think I want to.

by GavinDragon Fri Feb 26, 2016 11:54 am

Just spoke to my old man who was there. He said Angus' kicking out of hand was poor

by Guest Fri Feb 26, 2016 12:01 pm

It was a bit depressing watching our waves of attack. You could almost sense the realisation that "oh no, this isn't working and we've got nothing else in our armoury to try". A bit like Wales without a plan B, but unlike Wales we didn't have the size of guys to eventually wear them down. Glasgow did though. So they could snuff out our attack, or absorb it to be more accurate. And then they made yard after yard in their own attacks up our pitch. Angus did try to change things on occasion like kicks to the corner, chips through, etc. but they just didn't work against a strong defense like Glasgow.

On the pitch: we've had some atrocious weather lately (I should know; we're having our house re-rendered and they've been at it for almost 2 months now as there's been few dry spells) but that thing looked worse than ever. Rather than a mud bath they covered it with sand so it looked like they were playing on Merthyr Mawr! But what can the ground staff do? Wales is extra rainy, rugby is particularly destructive, and we've got 2 rugby sides and 1 football side all using it. Somethings got to give: either a 3G/4G pitch or boot out one of the users (e.g. The County). Otherwise it will be poor for everyone for quite some time.

by Luckless Pedestrian Fri Feb 26, 2016 12:07 pm

GavinDragon wrote:Just spoke to my old man who was there. He said Angus' kicking out of hand was poor

It wasn't consistently poor. He missed a penalty kick to touch, and some of his kicking infield was aimless, but let's be honest, he's not the only one guilty of that. I still think he's got the making of a fine outside half and he's a good playmaker, but he had to deal with some terrible passes from Pretorius yesterday.

by **RiscaGame** Fri Feb 26, 2016 4:22 pm

Angus isn't the best kicker from hand from what I've seen. Arguably none of them are. The only game I've seen Angus do well at it was that Stade game.

Still, it looks like he'll feature more next season as second choice ten minimum. Well almost certainly second choice as The Best Flyhalf To Emerge From The Gwent Valleys Since David Watkins (TM) (to use his full name) is bound to be first choice.

by Guest Fri Feb 26, 2016 5:28 pm

What about Tovey? Have I missed some news???

by **RiscaGame** Fri Feb 26, 2016 6:01 pm

Not yet.

by GavinDragon Fri Feb 26, 2016 7:10 pm

Be a shame if he went

by Cardiff Dave Fri Feb 26, 2016 7:19 pm

Tovey returning to Cardiff as Patchell's replacement?

by **RiscaGame** Sat Feb 27, 2016 1:38 am

GavinDragon wrote:Be a shame if he went

Be typical Lyp to let him go after freezing Angus out for about a year. Favourites matter just as much as nepotism. Still, I'm sure Hazell will reward the idiot (Lyp) with another two years. Just as well tie Luc down long term too.

The other name I'm not sure of will be a shock too. Bit of a Lyp favourite too. If fit, he'll play.

by **RiscaGame** Sat Feb 27, 2016 1:44 am

Cardiff Dave wrote:Tovey returning to Cardiff as Patchell's replacement?

No. You have the two great hopes now. Anscombe and Morgan. They'll do for you. Brizzle are losing a ten/fifteen though. Maybe he'll go there, if Lyp goes through with his long serving chat.

by Cardiff Dave Sun Feb 28, 2016 9:55 pm

RiscaGame wrote:
Cardiff Dave wrote:Tovey returning to Cardiff as Patchell's replacement?

No. You have the two great hopes now. Anscombe and Morgan. They'll do for you. Brizzle are losing a ten/fifteen though. Maybe he'll go there, if Lyp goes through with his long serving chat.

Jarrod Evans and Morgan when Gatscombe is tackle-bagging for team Wales. Would've been great to hang on to Patchell, but there we are. His call I spose.

by Luckless Pedestrian Sun Mar 06, 2016 8:02 am

So there we go. The run of narrow defeats ends not with a win, but with a heavy defeat. I'm getting tired of this sh*t.

by **RiscaGame** Sun Mar 06, 2016 12:14 pm

Never mind. Lyp is confident we will turn our season around, starting with a win v Edinburgh.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't win another game this season, given that we have Edinburgh home, three derbies, Gloucester and Zebre away. I also don't particularly care if we don't get another win, as it might cause some sort of reaction (though I won't hold my breath). I'd settle for a ban on kicking outside our 22 Wink

by Cardiff Dave Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:26 pm

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:So there we go. The run of narrow defeats ends not with a win, but with a heavy defeat. I'm getting tired of this sh*t.

You're not alone, judging by the number of comments. Where's Steff and LD when you need 'em?

by Cardiff Dave Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:14 pm

Rumour has it that there isn't turmoil at The Drags.
Is this true?

by **RiscaGame** Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:53 pm

Next season we will be top six. That's the target. Mark Lyp Jones' words.

by Cardiff Dave Thu Mar 10, 2016 11:31 pm

RiscaGame wrote:Next season we will be top six. That's the target. Mark Lyp Jones' words.

My head just fell off.

by **RiscaGame** Fri Mar 11, 2016 1:29 am

Lyp the Great promised we'd be close this season and has narrowly missed out on it. I expect us to be there next season, with the dream team in charge.

by **RiscaGame** Sun Mar 13, 2016 1:56 am

Good results for the Gwent Prem teams, particularly Ebbw v the best non pro team in the galaxy.

by mikey_dragon Sun Mar 13, 2016 10:54 pm

So Amos for Cuthbert then? Having watched the game again I've only just realised how bloody hopeless he is. James is in the same vein. Amos and in and hopefully Halfpenny is also back soon!

by **RiscaGame** Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:03 pm

I hope that's the case. I would be surprised if it was though. I suspect Cuthbert will get another chance to find some form, probably even run a try in v Italy, Gatland will declare all is well again and then Cuthbert will just revert to type again v England and NZ.

by mikey_dragon Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:08 pm

I think what you say is more likely. Any idea when Morgan is back in action? I'd probably select him outside Roberts ahead of all others.

by **RiscaGame** Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:21 pm

Doesn't seem to be any updates coming out of Team Wales on Tyler. I thought the latest update from the Drags suggested he would be fit for Gloucester though?

by Stone Motif Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:34 pm

mikey_dragon wrote: I've only just realised how bloody hopeless he is

by mikey_dragon Sun Mar 13, 2016 11:56 pm

I meant that I only just realised how hopeless he played yesterday. I've always known he's a limited player that isn't playing well.

by **RiscaGame** Fri Mar 18, 2016 9:03 pm

Kingsley on Chum V.

"With the likes of Toby, Tyler Morgan and Dorian Jones coming back from injury."

I didn't know Taulupe was injured, but secondly and worse for me, why mention Dorian in the same breath?

by Luckless Pedestrian Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:41 am

Because he's the new Dai Watkins, of course!

by Luckless Pedestrian Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:47 am

Anyone else think it it was a bit harsh that they took off Amos on Saturday? Okay, he was having a quiet game (not helped by players choosing not to pass to him), but they knew the game would open up as it wore on, so why not leave him on? If they did it to have a look at Anscombe at full back, then they should have made it a straight swap with Liam Williams. They've given Cuthbert full matches to 'find his mojo', so what's the difference? If Amos had played the full 80, then I'm sure he would have seen more of the ball, and might have scored / created a try, which would have given him more confidence. Taking him off early won't have helped his confidence at all.

by **RiscaGame** Mon Mar 21, 2016 1:31 pm

It was very harsh, but as soon as he dropped that one kick (albeit backwards), Cement Head had a ready made excuse. Felt very sorry for him to be honest. Davies started pretty poorly and any ball that did make it's way towards Amos would've left him with no room to work in. This was proven when Davies gave him a bit of a hospital pass and Sarto put that big hit on him.

But seeing as we usually have to grind Italy down, we should've left Amos on. I guarantee Cuthbert would've had eighty on Saturday (if fit) and it would've been Anscombe for Williams straight swap.

by ScarletSpiderman Mon Mar 21, 2016 4:36 pm

I felt very sorry for Amos, he was kept out of the game by his own side. Not only were there some poor passes going out, but also every time the ball was moved to his wing, there was a lock or Roberts on the wing instead of him. And to take him off for Anscommbe was farcical. If anything I could have understood switching Amos and Sanjay around, giving him a crack a fullback (after all that is where Gats said he should be playing), but to take him off to give Anscommbe another chance at fullback, seems he has had more chances there than Amos has, and still has done nothing to impress (but plenty to depress).

by Luckless Pedestrian Mon Mar 21, 2016 4:52 pm

I wonder how they explained the decision to Amos himself. 'We don't think you're quick enough to play wing at Test level - we see you as a full back - so we thought we'd take you off and put a different full back there instead.'

by 2ndtimeround Mon Mar 21, 2016 5:26 pm

If anyone deserves to be taken off Saturday it was Jon Davies. Possibly his worst performance as far as passing goes.
Amos was subbed before he had an opportunity to do anything, obviously doesn't fit Gatlands master plan.

by Luckless Pedestrian Mon Mar 21, 2016 5:38 pm

2ndtimeround wrote:Amos was subbed before he had an opportunity to do anything

Yep. In a match that we were never likely to lose, and that didn't really count for much. The more I think about it, the poorer a decision it seems.

by **RiscaGame** Mon Mar 21, 2016 7:30 pm

Heard a rumour that one of flyhalves will be playing against us Sunday. Shocking, if true but would make sense with the other rumour I posted about players being told to leave. Guess TGFHTEFTGVSDW (Mini Kings) is fit.

by **RiscaGame** Mon Mar 21, 2016 7:39 pm

Apparently, he can't play against us. Shocking

Sent out on loan until the end of the season. I'm a little surprised Kirwan or Davey don't have anything on it yet.

by Luckless Pedestrian Tue Mar 22, 2016 11:19 am

I don't follow.

by munkian Tue Mar 22, 2016 12:22 pm

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:I don't follow.

Snap

by **RiscaGame** Tue Mar 22, 2016 12:52 pm

RiscaGame wrote:Heard a rumour that one of flyhalves will be playing against us Sunday. Shocking, if true but would make sense with the other rumour I posted about players being told to leave. Guess TGFHTEFTGVSDW (Mini Kings) is fit.

With the rumour I posted about Angus probably now being second choice on this page and with you hopefully knowing who we are playing on Sunday, I'm sure you can work it out.

Everybody loves a riddle.

by Luckless Pedestrian Tue Mar 22, 2016 12:58 pm

We've lent Angus O'Brien to Edinburgh?

What's the rumour about players being told to leave? Which players, and who's telling them to leave?

by **RiscaGame** Tue Mar 22, 2016 1:00 pm

Tovey apparently

by **RiscaGame** Tue Mar 22, 2016 1:33 pm

Lyn spoke to three players and said they've been there too long. One was Goose, one was the player seemingly going out on loan and the other I am not sure about which is why I was only hinting.

The third player the guy who told me said he had a nickname, which I guessed as Shanksy and was told yes. Seeing as Shanksy seems to be a bit of a Lyn favourite, I'm not sure it can be him but then I can't think of anybody else it could be.

by munkian Tue Mar 22, 2016 4:31 pm

Injury Updates

After returning to full training last week in preparation for this weekends clash, the Dragons medical staff have issued the following medical update.

Keagan Bale

Young prop Keagan Bale suffered a knee injury during training a few months ago. He is currently progressing well in rehab and is due to begin some skill work.

Rhys Buckley

Dragons hooker Rhys Buckley, who sustained a shoulder injury, is due to complete a rehab phase and is being reintegrated into full training with the squad.

Andrew Coombs

The International lock, who under went knee surgery last month, is currently in rehab and his training is ongoing.

Jack Dixon

Jack Dixon sustained a kidney injury during pre-season against Scarlets. The centre continues to make good progress during his rehabilitation in strength and conditioning.

Ollie Griffiths

Back row Ollie Griffiths injured his hamstring during training with Wales 7s. He is doing very well in rehab and his strengthening work is progressing. Griffiths is due to start running progressions soon.

Dorian Jones

The fly-half has progressed extremely well through rehab after his pectoral surgery. Jones may be available for selection against Edinburgh next weekend.

Luc Jones

Luc Jones sustained an ankle injury during the British and Irish Cup tournament, he is currently in rehab and is progressing well. He is due to start running progressions shortly.

Tyler Morgan

Wales and Dragons centre Tyler Morgan has recovered from his hamstring injury and is currently in full training with the Welsh Region. The young gun may be available for selection against Edinburgh next weekend.

Tom Prydie

Winger Tom Prydie, who sustained a knee injury, is currently in rehab and is on schedule with his recovery.

Boris Stankovich

Hard hitting prop Boris Stankovich has recovered from his back injury, and may be available for selection against Edinburgh next weekend.

James Thomas

James Thomas, who underwent back surgery, is currently doing well. He has began running and is reintegrating into skill work.

by **RiscaGame** Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:17 pm

Hope Bale doesn't do too much skill work with Uncle Lyn, or we could knock his progress back by years.

by Luckless Pedestrian Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:40 pm

RiscaGame wrote:Lyn spoke to three players and said they've been there too long. One was Goose, one was the player seemingly going out on loan and the other I am not sure about which is why I was only hinting.

The third player the guy who told me said he had a nickname, which I guessed as Shanksy and was told yes. Seeing as Shanksy seems to be a bit of a Lyn favourite, I'm not sure it can be him but then I can't think of anybody else it could be.

If they're looking to bring Keddie through, it would make sense.

I do feel a bit sorry for Lewis Evans. That season he was captain we were truly dreadful, but you could never fault his commitment. If he'd played for any of the other regions, he'd have at least one Test cap.

by **RiscaGame** Tue Mar 22, 2016 6:19 pm

It would in a sense, but Evans seems to start a lot for somebody who is now surplus to requirements. Same as Tovey who was second choice and Angus completely bombed out and now Lyp has decided randomly they've been there too long.

There are only a few people who have been there too long. Hazell, Godfrey and the Chuckle Brothers.

by Stone Motif Tue Mar 22, 2016 9:27 pm

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:
RiscaGame wrote:Lyn spoke to three players and said they've been there too long. One was Goose, one was the player seemingly going out on loan and the other I am not sure about which is why I was only hinting.

The third player the guy who told me said he had a nickname, which I guessed as Shanksy and was told yes. Seeing as Shanksy seems to be a bit of a Lyn favourite, I'm not sure it can be him but then I can't think of anybody else it could be.

If they're looking to bring Keddie through, it would make sense.

I do feel a bit sorry for Lewis Evans. That season he was captain we were truly dreadful, but you could never fault his commitment. If he'd played for any of the other regions, he'd have at least one Test cap.

Absolutely. Stood tall on any number of occasions when all around him was going to sh1t. Leaves us light at six I
from what I can see, even if Keddie does.come along as hoped. Maybe we are getting Vosawai after all. Without going all Dowlais be a shame for a home grown player who actually contributes meaningfully being sent down the road so we can sign the hot and cold Vos. Lyntastic - three cheers for Gwent, etc.

by munkian Wed Mar 23, 2016 1:50 pm

Tovey gone to Embra then - seems rough he couldn't see out the season with us.

by **RiscaGame** Wed Mar 23, 2016 2:04 pm

Shoddy treatment all round. Not considered important enough to keep, but not even afforded the courtesy of playing against us. The longer Lyn is in charge, the more I am actually despising him.

I am actually happy for Jason, should he get signed by somebody next season (and he inevitably will). At least he will be spared from suffering Lyp's coaching.

by Guest Wed Mar 23, 2016 2:07 pm

What?! Just seen the news. I was never his biggest fan but he was better than O'Brien and Jones, IMO. And more experienced. And a hell of a points scorer really.

I'm in shock. Have we someone else lined up? Don't tell me, Burton is on his way back?! No wait......Mike Hercus? Arlidge???

Sorry to sound negative/partonising. But f**k it. I've had enough!

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