Dragons RFC - new name, new season: 2022/23

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New name, bit of a rebrand…..but same old Dragons? Hopefully not!

Player movements:

Players In:

Bradley Roberts from Ireland Ulster
JJ Hanrahan from France Clermont
Rhodri Jones from Wales Ospreys
Sean Lonsdale from England Exeter Chiefs
Max Clark from England Bath
George Nott from England London Irish
Sio Tomkinson from New Zealand Highlanders
Angus O'Brien from Wales Scarlets
Lewis Jones from Wales Cardiff
Rob Evans from Wales Scarlets


Players Out:

Taylor Davies returned to Wales Scarlets
Dan Babos released
Mesake Doge released
Tom Griffiths released
Jordan Olowofela returned to England Leicester Tigers
Max Williams released
Josh Lewis to Wales Merthyr
Jonah Holmes to England Ealing Trailfinders
Dan Baker to Wales Aberavon
Owen Jenkins to Wales Wales Sevens
Will Talbot-Davies to England Coventry
Greg Bateman retired
Joe Maksymiw to France Agen
Evan Lloyd to Wales Ebbw Vale
Carrick McDonough to Wales Ebbw Vale
Adam Warren to Wales Llandovery
Harry Fry to England Hartpury University

Some decent signings there, on paper. And lots of players leaving who were not that good. But also losing a couple of decent ones in Doge and Holmes.

Fingers crossed for a few more wins this season

Will this at least be watchable on Facebook?

* Which it isn't, but there will be highlights available afterwards. Can you still go down to the ground and watch pre-season friendlies?

Welshmushroom wrote:Team announced for the Friendly against Bristol:-

Dragons: Angus O’Brien, Rio Dyer, Sio Tomkinson, Jack Dixon, Jared Rosser, JJ Hanrahan, Rhodri Williams; Rhodri Jones, Bradley Roberts, Chris Coleman, Huw Taylor, Sean Lonsdale, Harri Keddie (c), Lennon Greggains, Ollie Griffiths

Replacements: Elliot Dee, Rob Evans, Lloyd Fairbrother, George Nott, Ross Moriarty, Lewis Jones, Will Reed, Max Clark, Jordan Williams, Josh Reynolds, James Benjamin, David Richards

Looks like Dragons will be playing Tomkinson at 13 this year.  Good to see O'Brien, Dyer and Rosser all retain their starts.  Got to be our best back 3.  Looks a fairly decent 15 for a starting friendly.  Got some quality on the bench as well.  All we need now is for us to put Bristol away and get some early confidence rolling.

I was certain Tomkinson would play 13 for us, given the other 12's we have. Good that JJ gets a run at 10, Davies must know he isn't assured of his place now. I expect he'll go back to Ospreys once his contract is up. Just as we sign another lock forward we go into this game with two back-row forwards at 2nd row, just what I wanted us to avoid doing all season...

It’s a bit weird not to have Sam Davies in the squad, as he should be really. I can’t think of anybody else that is available, that has missed out. I know he is supposedly starting next week, but one minute Ryan is talking about getting players up to speed and the next he isn’t involving his probable second choice (minimum) fly half.

The only other players who aren’t involved, that I can think of after a bit more thought (that were never mentioned as doubts), are the likes of Joe Davies and Ben Fry, who are likely to be more fringe players this season (without injuries).

Not a bad team though. It’s a bit weird seeing Huw Taylor start in the row, despite the signings.

mikey_dragon wrote:Will this at least be watchable on Facebook?

* Which it isn't, but there will be highlights available afterwards. Can you still go down to the ground and watch pre-season friendlies?

The friendlies are a tenner a ticket. I doubt we will stream them. The only games I’ve known as friendlies streamed, was because the Scarlets did it for us.

Yep I can't find any info on it being televised or streamed. So therefore probably paying the £10 is the only way to watch this. Unless your a season ticket holder in which case the game is free.

RiscaGame wrote:It’s a bit weird not to have Sam Davies in the squad, as he should be really. I can’t think of anybody else that is available, that has missed out. I know he is supposedly starting next week, but one minute Ryan is talking about getting players up to speed and the next he isn’t involving his probable second choice (minimum) fly half.

The only other players who aren’t involved, that I can think of after a bit more thought (that were never mentioned as doubts), are the likes of Joe Davies and Ben Fry, who are likely to be more fringe players this season (without injuries).

Not a bad team though. It’s a bit weird seeing Huw Taylor start in the row, despite the signings.

Think Taylor said he was putting on some timber in the off season as he wanted to play at second row for us moving forward.

I'm guessing he left Davies out this week to put pressure on him a bit to perform next week. Probably not a bad call as Davies went off the boil for us towards the later half of last season. Reckon JJ would have to have a pretty good game against Bristol if they really are considering him as the starting 10 this season.

On the plus side we really have a bit of competition at 10 so that's not a bad thing.

Spending £225k a year on Hanrahan but then not playing him would be peak Dean Ryan

I do agree with both perspectives there (especially Dean not starting his money men ha), but I do still think that I would’ve let Sam have a run with the backline tonight too. I guess he will start with Clark next week, which may favour him more. We shall see.

Unlucky result for us against Bristol. We looked pretty good for large parts of that game.

Tomkinson looks the real deal as well. He will add something to our midfield for sure. Thought JJ was ok but I think both Reed and Davies offer us more at 10. O'Brien started exactly how he finished last year with the Scarlets, he really has some gas which we have missed at 15.

Looking forward to see how Clark goes this weekend if he starts. I think so far we might really catch some teams cold early doors.

We haven't lacked gas at 15, we just lacked a decent player there with Jordan Williams seeming to be injured a lot. AOB didn't look good when he left us, and he didn't look that fast either. He must have done a lot of work-ons after his injury.

mikey_dragon wrote:We haven't lacked gas at 15, we just lacked a decent player there with Jordan Williams seeming to be injured a lot. AOB didn't look good when he left us, and he didn't look that fast either. He must have done a lot of work-ons after his injury.

Jordan is a good player on his day. Has good hands and good in attack in terms of footwork. But for me despite all his skills he isn't the fastest around and at full back having pace always adds a load to a teams cutting edge not to mention defensive positioning. And in defense Jordan isn't the best tackling 15 either.

O'Brien must have worked on this as he didn't seem that quick I agree. But on Friday he showed at times how quick he is now. Think he will be a real asset for us at 15. Easily going to be our starting 15 this season I reckon.

We got the following at home this season in the URC:-
1. Munster
2. Sharks
3. Ospreys
4. Zebre
5. Cardiff
6. Bulls
7. Glasgow
8. Connacht
9. Scarlets

Fancy us at home against Zebre, Glasgow, Connacht. We're really going to have to play well for the others though. I'm 100% sure we will be better than last season at home.

Feeling pretty good about the URC season ahead. Come on you Dragons!

Welshmushroom wrote:
Fancy us at home against Zebre, Glasgow, Connacht.  

Dragons are 11-9 at home vs Glasgow: https://www.cardiffrfcfans.com/analysis/6067.php?homeTeamID=20&awayTeamID=12
7-1 vs Zebre: https://www.cardiffrfcfans.com/analysis/6067.php?homeTeamID=20&awayTeamID=34
10-7 against Connacht: https://www.cardiffrfcfans.com/analysis/6067.php?homeTeamID=20&awayTeamID=9

I see the Glasgow game is on January 28th, when Glasgow will be missing half a team.

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/20875442.urc-dragons-forward-ollie-griffiths-suffers-injury-woe/

We're going to have to face reality over Ollie Griffiths. There's only so much room for sentimentality in professional sport. He's taking the place of someone who would actually play.

Social media have put up our squad pic. For some reason, Ben Moa features despite not being listed as in our squad, and as far as I know he hasn’t signed a contract.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/20875442.urc-dragons-forward-ollie-griffiths-suffers-injury-woe/

We're going to have to face reality over Ollie Griffiths. There's only so much room for sentimentality in professional sport. He's taking the place of someone who would actually play.

Already… is it worth him sitting out an entire season? Prolonged rest and extra time to work on niggles, etc.

He really can’t get a break from injury. Good that we have Basham who is as good I’d say. Then of course Keddie and Wainwright can play 7.

Retiring has got to be something he considers a lot too. Warburton had to listen to his body in the end. Dragons are pretty stocked and I wonder if they would ever make the call, to help him out. It can’t be good for him to have to overcome so many injuries. There are three players who are chasing Wales places in the back row already, Keddie the club captain and others like Fry and Lonsdale etc who need to play. He’s up for renewal next year, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens with this injury and if he suffers others too.

RiscaGame wrote:Retiring has got to be something he considers a lot too. Warburton had to listen to his body in the end. Dragons are pretty stocked and I wonder if they would ever make the call, to help him out. It can’t be good for him to have to overcome so many injuries. There are three players who are chasing Wales places in the back row already, Keddie the club captain and others like Fry and Lonsdale etc who need to play. He’s up for renewal next year, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens with this injury and if he suffers others too.

It might be that this one is minor, and he stays injury-free for the rest of the season - but I just don't see it. I feel for him because he's been exceptional at times, but if I had a choice between him and a player who's maybe not quite as good but is available all season, I know which I'd take.

I do hope they'll be honest and realistic with him at some point, even it's not a conversation you want to have.

Yeah such a shame. When he has been on the park he has been excellent.

The good news is back row is an area I don't worry about as we have some really great options there now.

The real test for us is how many games we can get out of Rob Evans and Rhodri Jones. Neither have the best track record for injuries the last couple of seasons. Hopefully they stay fit as I think they will be fairly important to us. Seiuli hasn't impressed me and I was surprised we actually re-signed him this summer.

Same here on Seiuli. So many of our attacks last season ended with him either knocking on or getting isolated (the second not entirely his fault). I guess they have all these stats though when they make these decisions.

Hopefully see Tompkinson and Clark paired in the second half. Quite nice to be back at RP tonight, with the blinking sun out too. I can’t remember a time I’ve ever worn shorts here.

I don’t particularly like Seuli. I did think Reynolds might be third choice ahead of him, but he’s benching for us and Newport this weekend, so a little down the pecking order if assigned to them, I guess.

New white kit is nice too. Shame I bought one last season, but I think I can justify this one just, for what it represents.

It seems a little one-sided… well on the scoreboard at least.

First half was poor start and then tried forcing things a bit. Second better. Tompkinson when he came on was good and Rosser was great (albeit came on late). Scrum and driving maul pretty good second half.

Tough game to read really. I would’ve thought we should’ve beaten them on paper tonight.

Pre season is never a good indicator of success. Leicester for example had a poor preseason but won the league comfortably in the end last season.

From what I saw I'm not sure who is going to pair with Sio but there's no doubt in my mind he will be nailed on for a starting berth against Edinburgh.

I just hope we don't overplay him which is always the temptation. The guy will need a rest throughout the season here and there. I don't see any value in playing him in away games we know we are probably going to lose.

Away, I guess they might favour the centres that started against Wasps (Dixon and Clark), just because I guess he might want us as physical as possible.

RiscaGame wrote:Away, I guess they might favour the centres that started against Wasps (Dixon and Clark), just because I guess he might want us as physical as possible.

Yeah Edinburgh are a handful so he may go more defensive and a tight game plan. It's such a touch opener I would prefer for us to Sio though and get Angus at 15. Both of those offer us a lot of attacking threat. If we learnt anything watching Edinburgh last year, you need to score a few tries if your going to beat them at home. Reckon we will need at least 25 points to win there.

I would prefer us to play the two you mention, it's just what I think he will do. His team for tomorrow surprised me a little, though I guess it probably confirms Dixon and Sio as the centres for Edinburgh, unless Clark goes well.

Dragons RFC: Jordan Williams, David Richards, Jared Rosser, Max Clark, Ashton Hewitt, Will Reed, Lewis Jones; Aki Seiuli, Elliot Dee, Lloyd Fairbrother, Joe Davies, Ben Carter, Ross Moriarty (c), Ben Fry, Taine Basham

Replacements: James Benjamin, Josh Reynolds, Luke Yendle, Ryan Woodman, Lennon Greggains, Huw Taylor, Ben Moa, Che Hope, Angus O’Brien, Joe Westwood, Oli Andrew, Ioan Davies

Sam Davies ruled out of the Edinburgh game. Ollie Griffiths likely to be fit for the derbies. Aaron Wainwright and Will Rowlands may feature against Edinburgh, despite no pre-season games.

From the SWA.

Rowlands and Keddie named captains. Seems like a good pair of choices. Keddie was captain last year too, can't remember who else.

Probably Rhodri sometimes. Moriarty has too. Not sure who else last season.

Few niggles already.

SWA wrote: Keddie could miss the trip to Murrayfield due to injury, and Ryan could also be without a number of other players.

“I don’t think any of our injuries will be particularly long-term, but Sam [Davies] is struggling with a bone bruise, Ollie Griffiths is struggling, Harrison Keddie is struggling, Rhodri [Jones] as well, and Rob Evans broke his jaw,” he said.

Dragons XV: Angus O’Brien, Rio Dyer, Sio Tomkinson, Jack Dixon, Jared Rosser, JJ Hanrahan, Rhodri Williams; Aki Seiuli, Bradley Roberts, Lloyd Fairbrother, Ben Carter, Will Rowlands (c), Sean Lonsdale, Ben Fry, Ross Moriarty

Replacements: Elliot Dee, Josh Reynolds, Chris Coleman, Joe Davies, Taine Basham, Lewis Jones, Will Reed, Jordan Williams

It’s not far off what I would’ve expected, given the injuries. I would’ve started Basham personally.

Didn't know Brown was injured. If true then not a good sign either as he seems to be injured often. Dixon or Joe Davies wouldn't be in my 23 as the new signings are a step up on them.

The way Ryan constantly talked up Dixon last season, he will have to start him more often than not.

So, nothing changes.....

Looks that way Phil.... they were very much in the game at half time but got blown away in the second half. They looked shellshocked & a bit lost in all honesty.

Don't worry. There will be another Q&A soon, where our main man can feed the supporters a few more lines about the takeover and suddenly things like results won't matter.

If the Regions don't get better coaches then things will remain the same... Dragons needed a new forwards, backs and defence coach - all we get is ummm, Dai Flanagan. Based on what I seen elsewhere, it doesn't look like Scarlets defence will imrpove soon either.

And from looking on the website, it appears Dragons don't have a backs coach.

Nah, they don't technically. It's technically Dai Flan, because Dean is still the head honcho.

I agree they need a new defence coach. Forwards probably too.

mikey_dragon wrote:If the Regions don't get better coaches then things will remain the same... Dragons needed a new forwards, backs and defence coach - all we get is ummm, Dai Flanagan. Based on what I seen elsewhere, it doesn't look like Scarlets defence will imrpove soon either.

And from looking on the website, it appears Dragons don't have a backs coach.

Did you see the match on the weekend? Our defence kept us in the game in the first half. A couple of seasons ago, or even last season, we would have been going in with a much bigger deficient & we played 2 periods of 10 minutes with 14 men in the game. Looking at the stats we only missed 12 tackles on the weekend, compared to the Ospreys 21.

Yes I did, Scarlets let in two easy tries. It reminds me of last season. Ospreys don't have a great attack either. Tom Rogers and JD2 struggle in defence and are playing in areas which other teams can target. I would move Rogers to either full-back as he can play to his strengths better from there, otherwise I'd just not have him in the 23 (still can't believe Holmes was snubbed for this guy); JD2 I would move to 12. J Williams looks good enough to play 13.

mikey_dragon wrote:Yes I did, Scarlets let in two easy tries. It reminds me of last season. Ospreys don't have a great attack either. Tom Rogers and JD2 struggle in defence and are playing in areas which other teams can target. I would move Rogers to either full-back as he can play to his strengths better from there, otherwise I'd just not have him in the 23 (still can't believe Holmes was snubbed for this guy); JD2 I would move to 12. J Williams looks good enough to play 13.

Scott & Johnny should be our first choice centres, no doubt there. For me, having watched the game & comparing it to last season, we were better defensively really.

I'm yet to be convinced this early in the season. I didn't think your new defence coach was a good appointment at the time anyway, which was mostly my point.

mikey_dragon wrote:I'm yet to be convinced this early in the season. I didn't think your new defence coach was a good appointment at the time anyway, which was mostly my point.

We looked fitter & better drilled when we didn't have the ball. Josh made a difference when he came on, as good as Lezana is he doesn't give us a threat in terms of jackling.

We'll see how we go this weekend but I'd hope we will be ok against what could be a weakened Ulster outfit - that said last season we played a mostly second string Munster side at home and we shipped over 40 points.

Hearing Dragons might need to make an announcement soon.

Dai Flanagan's Barmy Army.

RiscaGame wrote:Hearing Dragons might need to make an announcement soon.

Dai Flanagan's Barmy Army.

Strong rumours on this one

I think there is a lot of substance to it. I didn't really see Oakdene mention it the other day, but there seems to be a few people who might know saying about it.

Whatever it is I'm not in the know!

Dragons RFC: Angus O'Brien; Rio Dyer, Sio Tomkinson, Jack Dixon, Ashton Hewitt; JJ Hanrahan, Rhodri Williams; Aki Seiuli, Bradley Roberts, Lloyd Fairbrother, George Nott, Will Rowlands (capt), Sean Lonsdale, Taine Basham, Ross Moriarty.

Replacements: Elliot Dee, Rob Evans, Chris Coleman, Ben Carter, Aaron Wainwright, Lewis Jones, Max Clark, Jordan Williams.

Glad Bashsam is in. Ben Carter seemed unnoticable last weekend, but Joe Davies was worse when he came on. The bench is better this time.

Anyone see Steff Hughes sat there with the boys, in Dragons gear? Wonder what's going on there.

We are signing him in some form. Not sure if it is a loan or what yet, as I have seen both short term contract and loan mentioned.

He was seemingly a travelling reserve yesterday?