Dragons v Ospreys, 1st January 2017

Dragons: C Meyer, P Howard, T Morgan, S Beard, A Hewitt, A O’Brien, T Knoyle, P Price, E Dee, B Harris, N Crosswell, C Hill, L Evans (captain), O Griffiths, E Jackson. Replacements: R Buckley, S Hobbs, L Fairbrother, M Screech, R Landman, S Pretorius, D Jones, A Warren

Ospreys: S Davies, D Howells, K Fonotia, J Matavesi, D Evans, D Biggar, T Habberfield, P James, S Baldwin, M Fia, L Ashley, AW Jones (captain), O Cracknell, J Tipuric, J King. Replacements: S Parry, N Smith, R Jones, R Thornton, D Baker, S Underhill, B Leonard, H Dirksen.

Referee: Ian Davies (WRU)

I'd have gone Warren and Beard for this personally. Their centres v ours worries me a bit. Not too chuffed about the front five on the whole either (Dee starting aside). It's just wholesale changes at once again.

It's definitely good that Beard's back in, but I don't know what Tyler did against the Blues to keep his place that Adam Warren didn't. I'm also not sure how dropping Landman for Crosswell strengthens our pack - although he's a good player around the park, we need to hold our own in the scrum first, which we more or less did against the Blues.

I think we can win, but then I always think we can win. It's an illness.

Gonna chuck it down in the morning.
Hoping for an old fashioned mudfest. Advantage Dregs I reckon.

Raining heavily at the moment, think that works to the O's advantage - they have a heavier, more physical pack.

I agree LP. Would have started Beard at 13. Is Dixon injured at the moment?

GavinDragon wrote:Raining heavily at the moment, think that works to the O's advantage - they have a heavier, more physical pack.

I agree LP. Would have started Beard at 13. Is Dixon injured at the moment?

Gav an Ospreys supporter from your Region has said it's been chucking it down for 5 hours, considering there was a Poofball game on that pitch yesterday, is there any fear this game could be called off?

haven't seen the pitch from yesterday, but with consistent rain, I wouldn't rule it out!

wayne wrote:

GavinDragon wrote:Raining heavily at the moment, think that works to the O's advantage - they have a heavier, more physical pack.

I agree LP. Would have started Beard at 13. Is Dixon injured at the moment?

Gav an Ospreys supporter from your Region has said it's been chucking it down for 5 hours, considering there was a Poofball game on that pitch yesterday, is there any fear this game could be called off?

Could have just said 'Cwmbran W*nker' and saved the toxic R word.

Newport playing on that pitch tomorrow too. All the best, Mark Jones.

Absolute shambles though.

This game should not be played the conditions don t allow quality rugby. Something needs to be done this ground/pitch is not fit for purpose this happens every year. At least we had Ponty V Keys last night and the Scarlets before this shower.

Nice advert that for top level rugby. Man of the match must have been a lucky dip. Dire.

offload wrote:Nice advert that for top level rugby.  Man of the match must have been a lucky dip.  Dire.

It's the Dregans mate. 'Dire' is the motto

The Dragons should invest in a 3G pitch and solve the constant flooded or frozen pitches this time of year and stuff the football. Playing on a poor pitch is selling the paying public short as well as the players.

I wonder how the search for investors is going?

I thought we would be bullied far more than we were. As it happened we pretty much stopped everything they threw at us, but yet again caused them no problems in attack while losing any field position to a poorly executed kicking game plan.

glamorganalun wrote:This game should not be played the conditions don t allow quality rugby Something needs to be done this ground/pitch is not fit for purpose this happens every year. At least we had Ponty V Keys last night and the Scarlets before this shower.

Yep, some real quality there. Give over.

Steffan wrote:

offload wrote:Nice advert that for top level rugby.  Man of the match must have been a lucky dip.  Dire.

It's the Dregans mate. 'Dire' is the motto

If only someone would gift us a load of free players, then we could change it to 'parasites'. Lo siento, 'Parasitos'

GavinDragon wrote:I thought we would be bullied far more than we were. As it happened we pretty much stopped everything they threw at us, but yet again caused them no problems in attack while losing any field position to a poorly executed kicking game plan.

We lost because our attack is rendered as limp-dickwd and predictable as El Stefano's comments after Conty win and the NGD lose by our lack of a single ball carrier up front.

Stone Motif wrote:

Steffan wrote:

offload wrote:Nice advert that for top level rugby.  Man of the match must have been a lucky dip.  Dire.

It's the Dregans mate. 'Dire' is the motto

If only someone would gift us a load of free players, then we could change it to 'parasites'. Lo siento, 'Parasitos'

Muy bien mi amigo. Your Spanish is very good

In regards to "Conty"

We have a 4G pitch and don't allow sheet shovel of games to take place anymore like you did today. Ponty still serving as a "feeder" club to the BLUES  so still get players as per the WRU rules

As a region you should probably get "free" players really. But who the hell would want to play for it?

And just remember...YOU are supposed to be representing professional rugby in Wales

glamorganalun wrote:The Dragons should invest in a 3G pitch and solve the constant flooded or frozen pitches this time of year and stuff the football. Playing on a poor pitch is selling the paying public short as well as the players.

I wonder how the search for investors is going?

3G, in the football league? Behave yourself

See above Steff and learn why we can't have 4G.

Steffan wrote:

Stone Motif wrote:

Steffan wrote:

offload wrote:Nice advert that for top level rugby.  Man of the match must have been a lucky dip.  Dire.

It's the Dregans mate. 'Dire' is the motto

If only someone would gift us a load of free players, then we could change it to 'parasites'. Lo siento, 'Parasitos'

Muy bien mi amigo. Your Spanish is very good

In regards to "Conty"

We have a 4G pitch and don't allow sheet shovel of games to take place anymore like you did today. Ponty still serving as a "feeder" club to the BLUES  so still get players as per the WRU rules

As a region you should probably get "free" players really. But who the hell would want to play for it?

And just remember...YOU are supposed to be representing professional rugby in Wales

No entiende pendejo...you wanna try that again in something approaching coherent Inglese?

Good to meet up with Gavin from here and Grant from the official supporters club pre-match yesterday, and a few others from that organisation. Spoke with Stuart Davies as well who spoke well of that organisation.

Truly an awful game, why we didn't kick for the 3 points to put the game beyond the Dragons was beyond me, it says it all that Cracknell was MOTM, the conditions determined it was going to be that type of player would get MOTM. I thought the Dragons did a real good job on our lineout, we only sorted it out when Thornton came on, it just shows Ashley should be nowhere our first choice 23, Adam Beard is far far superior. Habberfield's service is so much better than Leonard's and should be selected when that is the priority, the All Black should only start when physicality is the main criteria.

Just have to hope the late changes and the injuries during the game are not too serious, with the 6Ns coming up I can see about a dozen of our squad being called up, we will need all our squad for that important phase of the season to keep our impetus going in the 3 competitions that we are near the top.

There's technically no such thing as 4g, 5g, 6g, etc. It's just a marketing ploy by companies to say that they have developed something beyond the original 3g. It's the company's next product that supersedes the last one.

The main thing to know is that you have 3 main types. Full grass and mud (like the Dragons have. Fine for rugby. In summer ); hybrid which has some grass and some synthetic fibres interwoven (like the MS, Ospreys, Cardiff City Stadium, Twickers, Aviva, etc. All fine for rugby and football); and then there's the fully synthetic plastic pitches (not allowed in soccer. Glasgow and the Blues have them). We should be aspiring to the hybrid pitch like the O's and MS, IMO, however these still only allow a certain number of games on them (more than full grass so we might we alright with all and sundry playing on it like we have now ) and can get damaged and needs upkeep.

Just need the funding

Griff wrote:There's technically no such thing as 4g, 5g, 6g, etc. It's just a marketing ploy by companies to say that they have developed something beyond the original 3g. It's the company's next product that supersedes the last one.

The main thing to know is that you have 3 main types. Full grass and mud (like the Dragons have. Fine for rugby. In summer ); hybrid which has some grass and some synthetic fibres interwoven (like the MS, Ospreys, Cardiff City Stadium, Twickers, Aviva, etc. All fine for rugby and football); and then there's the fully synthetic plastic pitches (not allowed in soccer. Glasgow and the Blues have them). We should be aspiring to the hybrid pitch like the O's and MS, IMO, however these still only allow a certain number of games on them (more than full grass so we might we alright with all and sundry playing on it like we have now ) and can get damaged and needs upkeep.

Just need the funding

Griff is there any designs to have less teams play on that pitch NEXT season, yesterdays pitch was terrible, and as far as I can see Newport RFC are supposed to be playing RGC tonight, and from what I can see, it will be on that quagmire. Totally NOT acceptable.

wayne wrote:

Griff wrote:There's technically no such thing as 4g, 5g, 6g, etc. It's just a marketing ploy by companies to say that they have developed something beyond the original 3g. It's the company's next product that supersedes the last one.

The main thing to know is that you have 3 main types. Full grass and mud (like the Dragons have. Fine for rugby. In summer ); hybrid which has some grass and some synthetic fibres interwoven (like the MS, Ospreys, Cardiff City Stadium, Twickers, Aviva, etc. All fine for rugby and football); and then there's the fully synthetic plastic pitches (not allowed in soccer. Glasgow and the Blues have them). We should be aspiring to the hybrid pitch like the O's and MS, IMO, however these still only allow a certain number of games on them (more than full grass so we might we alright with all and sundry playing on it like we have now ) and can get damaged and needs upkeep.

Just need the funding

Griff is there any designs to have less teams play on that pitch NEXT season, yesterdays pitch was terrible, and as far as I can see Newport RFC are supposed to be playing RGC tonight, and from what I can see, it will be on that quagmire. Totally NOT acceptable.

Well, that would be ideal. There was a BBC article a while back about how RP was the most used pitch (at the highest level) in the UK. However, Newport RFC own it so I can't see them leaving. The county would be the obvious choice but have signed a long term lease. So that leaves us leaving! While I'm not totally against it, firstly I'm not sure there's a better alternative locally. Pitch-wise maybe, but not stadium/capacity. Secondly, and this is in no way because I'm from Newport, but for me it would be silly to move a pro sport business out of one of the main population centres in the whole of Wales to a much less densely populated area. I honestly think that if we struggle for crowds in Newport (3rd biggest population in Wales) then moving it elsewhere in Gwent such as Cwmbran, Ebbw Vale, etc. would lead to even smaller crowds. You look at other pro regional/provincial sides around the world and they base themselves in the main population centres, not out in the countryside: look at Munster, Ulster, Leinster, the NZ franchises, etc. Big places like Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Auckland, Wellington, etc.. We'd be silly to move out of the city and into a town or village, wouldn't we?! Just my opinion though

So as it stands, unless we find somewhere else to play in Newport (and there's nowhere) then we're stuck with 3 unless we can end County's lease somehow. But that'll cost us I'm sure

Griff wrote:

wayne wrote:

Griff wrote:There's technically no such thing as 4g, 5g, 6g, etc. It's just a marketing ploy by companies to say that they have developed something beyond the original 3g. It's the company's next product that supersedes the last one.

The main thing to know is that you have 3 main types. Full grass and mud (like the Dragons have. Fine for rugby. In summer ); hybrid which has some grass and some synthetic fibres interwoven (like the MS, Ospreys, Cardiff City Stadium, Twickers, Aviva, etc. All fine for rugby and football); and then there's the fully synthetic plastic pitches (not allowed in soccer. Glasgow and the Blues have them). We should be aspiring to the hybrid pitch like the O's and MS, IMO, however these still only allow a certain number of games on them (more than full grass so we might we alright with all and sundry playing on it like we have now ) and can get damaged and needs upkeep.

Just need the funding

Griff is there any designs to have less teams play on that pitch NEXT season, yesterdays pitch was terrible, and as far as I can see Newport RFC are supposed to be playing RGC tonight, and from what I can see, it will be on that quagmire. Totally NOT acceptable.

Well, that would be ideal. There was a BBC article a while back about how RP was the most used pitch (at the highest level) in the UK. However, Newport RFC own it so I can't see them leaving. The county would be the obvious choice but have signed a long term lease. So that leaves us leaving! While I'm not totally against it, firstly I'm not sure there's a better alternative locally. Pitch-wise maybe, but not stadium/capacity. Secondly, and this is in no way because I'm from Newport, but for me it would be silly to move a pro sport business out of one of the main population centres in the whole of Wales to a much less densely populated area. I honestly think that if we struggle for crowds in Newport (3rd biggest population in Wales) then moving it elsewhere in Gwent such as Cwmbran, Ebbw Vale, etc. would lead to even smaller crowds. You look at other pro regional/provincial sides around the world and they base themselves in the main population centres, not out in the countryside: look at Munster, Ulster, Leinster, the NZ franchises, etc.  Big places like Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Auckland, Wellington, etc.. We'd be silly to move out of the city and into a town or village, wouldn't we?!  Just my opinion though

So as it stands, unless we find somewhere else to play in Newport (and there's nowhere) then we're stuck with 3 unless we can end County's lease somehow. But that'll cost us I'm sure

Unless there is a break clause if they get relegated of course. I can see an easier solution mind.

Ah, good point Stone. Didn't consider that. Yes a break clause would do it.

Yes, there is also the nuclear option (from the point of view of anti-club, pro regional folk) - one pro club called Newport RFC playing in the the pro 12 and then not being in the Welsh prem. Is that what you mean?!

Griff wrote:Ah, good point Stone. Didn't consider that. Yes a break clause would do it.

Yes, there is also the nuclear option (from the point of view of anti-club, pro regional folk) - one pro club called Newport RFC playing in the the pro 12 and then not being in the Welsh prem. Is that what you mean?!

Can't see any other way of attracting the investment needed. Without the ground or a whopping new TV deal for rhe PrO'12 (fnar) what is there to invest in? A sh1t feeder team with no assets, identity, support base or prospect of improvement playing in a moribund league.