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

Anyone know what the injury update is for us? I know Dee, Wainwright & Basham have been ruled out for R1.

Wondering how many others are on our injury list at the moment. I'm just hoping its not as bad as the Scarlet list. They have a massive amount of players unavailable for round 1.

On a side note Dai still looking for a tighthead to help the load on Brown.

It's crazy to me they are going into R1 looking for a prop. Brown is a risky gamble to even play half of our games. Arhip is way past his best as well and also has a injury record. I hope they both are lucky on that front but it's a serious punt.

I guess we will see how we fare upfront in R1 because the Ospreys will defo test us there. We need parity because otherwise every other club will target us there. I really hope we at least make our 9 URC home games the priority for our best team. I just hope Dai does not try to focus on the challenge cup as well. That will probably ruin our URC season if he does that.

Our backrow of Keddie, Woodman and SLH worries me for this weekend.

Funaki out until round 3/4. Griffiths injured again, on top of the other ones.

The prop situation is crazy. Could probably have predicted Fairbrother not coming back and it’s not depth anyway, with Arhip and Brown unlikely to be fit constantly and Coleman being less than average.

Crikey we really are in trouble in the back row if those are all out.....this does not bode well for the weekend.

Think i miss read that....Your saying Keddie, Woodman and SLH are fit and likely to start this weekend.

Its not our best back row but i dont reckon that is where it will be won or lost anyway. Our tight 5 need to get us parity. If they do that I fancy our chances against Ospreys as long as our defence is sound. Ospreys dont have the best backline. I think our backline on paper is better than theirs.

Depends who features in our backline really. Reed, Owen and Hughes certainly aren’t better. I hope we put out Evans, Westwood and Wilson. I think Nott could play at 6 if available, with Carter and Cummins at 2nd row.

Yeah you are not wrong. I can't see Reed getting much game time this year. Evans looks like his starting 10 and I would hope O'Brien will become the backup 10 when he is fit again (think he is injured at the moment?)

He did seem to be picking Owen at 12 so that probably will happen. I also hope Wilson is our 13. I agree I'd rather see a Westwood/Wilson combo but likely it will be Owen/Wilson.

If we can get it to the wide channels I think our back 3 is a lot better than what the Ospreys have there.

But all of this is moot if our front 5 get battered - which if I'm being honest I'm probably expecting. Rumors out of Ospreys is Steff Thomas scrum work has come on leaps and bounds under Duncan so that if true is bad news for us. They are saying Fender will have a breakthrough this year and he is a massive lock as well. So if anything Ospreys might actually be stronger this year in the forwards.

If we do get beaten upfront I worry that we (or Ospreys depending how you see it) essentially have given all the teams a template on how to beat us this year. To be fair I think teams already knew that based on last season.

Owen and Hughes have skill, but not a lot more going for them compared to say Westwood who is big and has a multi-facet of skills. I think the former 2 are too slow and too small, you can't get away with that in a league of this intensity so I don't see what we got going for us if we persist with them. Reed just can't cut it at pro level, one of a few for us, sadly. I think we'll keep seeing a lot of Reed because AOB will be injured often, as will Cai Evans but I'm not sure if he will be considered a 10 ahead of Reed.

Ospreys had a weak back 3 but I think they're addressing this with Conbeer and Kasende. Ospreys strength is the set-piece, they have one to compete with the best (maybe less true since they're now without Smith and Francis), I don't see us matching them there but I don't know who they have back from injury yet. They had a lot of lock forwards out injured.

Ospreys 13/14 channel is weak and won't do much in attack. We can't even target that if we aren't putting our best midfield out. Wilson finds himself on the bench, I imagine he'll come on at 12 if there's no injuries. Our selection is a bit meh but I didn't realise we had so many injuries. I think Ospreys have enough up front to get the win.

Unavailable: Aaron Wainwright, Harri Ackerman, Dmitri Arhip, Oli Andrew, Taine Basham, Steve Cummins, Elliot Dee, Cai Evans, Solomone Funaki, Ollie Griffiths, Ashton Hewitt, Che Hope and Jordan Williams.

Dragons: Angus O'Brien; Rio Dyer, Joe Westwood, Aneurin Owen, Jared Rosser; Lloyd Evans, Dane Blacker; Rodrigo Martinez, Brodie Coghlan, Leon Brown, Ben Carter (capt), Matthew Screech, Ryan Woodman, Harri Keddie, Shane Lewis-Hughes.

Replacements: James Benjamin, Rhodri Jones, Luke Yendle, George Nott, Dan Lydiate, Rhodri Williams, Harry Wilson, Ewan Rosser.

Ospreys: Jack Walsh; Luke Morgan, Owen Watkin, Keiran Williams, Ryan Conbeer; Dan Edwards, Reuben Morgan-Williams; Gareth Thomas, Dewi Lake, Tom Botha, James Ratti, Adam Beard, Jac Morgan, Justin Tipuric, Morgan Morris

Replacements: Lewis Lloyd, Steffan Thomas, Math Iowerth-Scott, Huw Sutton, Harri Deaves, Luke Davies, Phil Cokanasiga, Max Nagy.

Christ, that’s arguably a Welsh international pack they’re starting. They’re going to pulverise us up front.

Yep seeing the lineups I think we will get battered up front.

I'm not holding out much hope on this one....

I don’t overly like that we signed a few players and don’t really use two who are available. It’s not like we can say Wilson isn’t ready, when AOB starts. Also, make a big deal about Burrows size and then not have him in the 23. Jumbo is not a hooker for me. Plus, as much as some on other platforms seem to see value in Lydiate, what is the point in playing players like Young all preseason and then not having one on the bench?

That aside, it’s not a bad team, but I do worry about our pack too. I also think their back row (all four) are better than what we have on show. I’ve seen Ospreys’ fans worry that their back three may struggle with our kicking options, but I don’t think they have much to worry about

Some of the players on the injured list, already make me question why we keep extending them too (Griffiths, Hewitt and Jordan Williams).

Our new kit seems to be popular with a few, it’s not rubbed off on me yet. I also think we should add a bit more, rather than be amber and black.

I didn't realise the back was black. I assumed it would match the front.

I am not a fan of the jersey. Shorts are good though.

Not sure what the injury status will be and when exactly the 10 injured players come back but if Dai has any sense he will look at last weekend's game and pull our best players for that Leinster match because I think we really need to field our best team for those 3 home fixtures.

If it was me I would pull Dyer, O'Brien, Keddie, Brown, Lewis-Hughes, Carter at a bare minimum. I'd probably play Evans at 10 again because I didnt think he played that well and it might give him another game to find his feet.

What is pleasing is with Wainwright, Funaki, Dee, Basham & Cummings to come back we should be stronger for it.

I think Wainwright is out for a while. Always rated Keedie, decent player who can play across the back-row, still not seeing what others see in Woodman at this level. On Funaki, I imagine he will focus on 8 and he’s back for round 4.

I really think playing Keddie at 7 was a good ploy.  He gives us a lot in carries from that position.  Him and Lewis-Hughes did a lot for us in terms of carries and gaining yards.  

When Funaki comes back I'd like to see us shift Lewis-Hughes to 6, keep Keedie at 7 and bring Funaki in at 8.  That will give us plenty of carrying power in the backrow.  

I will say after last weekend O'Brien probably needs to be our 15 with his boot and pace back there.  I would rather him at 10 but I genuinely dont think our other options at 15 are any good.

I'm not convinced by Evans at 10 mind you either.  I'm just hoping he gets better once he finds his feet a bit.

Agree with you on back-row but me personally, I'm still keen on putting Carter and Nott there. If specialist back-row players are available I'm sure that is the better option. Saturday might have been a game to suit Lydiate too and whilst I don't think it was wise to keep him, I rate him better than Woodman.

Evans played a lot at 15 last season but him and O'Brien for me at great options to have on the pitch at the same time. Again me personally, I think we should try Rio at 15. We have the option of putting Ewan Rosser there again. Westwood struggled with defence from 13 but I always thought he was going to be 12.

Carter really looked like he bulked in the off season. Given his size now I would be inclined to leave him in the second row. I genuinely feel like if we are going to edge teams in the tight 5 we need 2 big bruisers there now and put out lightweight lineout jumper in at 6. I think Lewis-Hughes has the height to be a lineout option at 6 so that is where I would move him but because he also does a job at 8, I would be tempted to play Nott at 6. He has played there before for us so clearly they are seeing him as that sort of option.

I know there's been plenty of chat about Carter bulking, but tbh I haven't noticed it. I don't think he looks 122kg, I would have had him around 118kg - so quite a significant difference in rugby. I could be wrong. I was thinking that Leon Brown looked bigger, but he's always been big, could probably play at No.8 if asked (not that I'd do it). Carter, Cummins, and Lewis-Hughes would work - just need to drop Woodman out of that back-row and put faith in others.

Ollie Griffiths has been diagnosed with having a tumour on his spine, will be out for the foreseeable future as he undergoes medical treatment. They haven't said much about the tumour, but given it's on the spine I imagine it is not as simple as just removing it.

I think Carter was reported to have bulked up, when he had his injury before the end of last season.

Bad news about Griffiths. Nasty that.

If he stays injury free I think Lewis-Hughes is going to be a very good signing actually. O’Brien seems to be picking up injuries again… Rosser was a bit sloppy at 15 (not the first time), wouldn’t it be useful to try another speedster at 15 who has more experience and is decent under the high ball, I wonder who that could be. I’m unsure what happened to Nott, perhaps a knock to the head, we’re not getting much luck with injuries. Carter and Screech have been solid, but still looking forward to seeing Cummins and Funaki come in.

Well after watching last weekends game there have been some positives. Our fitness has improved from last year. Dai probably should have rested some of the guys but a lot of them have impressed. Lewis-Hughes has been really good in terms of carrying. Thought Evans played better than the previous week. The score did not reflect the game and I thought Leinster were quite poor. Some of the calls flattered them. Some of our attacking play was very close to paying off and if they had taken those chances I'm not sure if Leinster had dropped behind they would have ended up scoring some of those points.

I just hope not having given some of our frontline guys a rest doesnt come back to bite us because the 3 next home games will be tough and if we are going to have a better season we need to be winning at least 2 out of 3. Ideally all 3.

A couple of the tries were dubious, I would say!

I will say I'm looking forward to seeing a backrow of Lewis-Hughes, Keddie, Wainwright with Funaki coming off the bench.

But there are a bunch of guys on our payroll that in my opinion should not be playing URC level rugby. I heard we have another 20 odd guys off contract at the end of this season and Dai really needs to think about who he retains. For me at the bare minimum I would be letting these guys go:-

Dee, Reynolds, Joe Davies, Cai Evans, Benjamin, Coleman, Brown, Arhip, Lydiate (will transition to coaching anyway), Griffiths, Steff Hughes, Hewitt, Jordan Williams. Probably doesnt make me to popular but in reality we could probably get 2 good props and a lock for those players.

Agree with all those except for Dee, definitely worth keeping and better for us if he comes out of the Wales reckoning. Coghlan seems to be coming good, still reckon an NWQ (maybe Swart) would be useful here. Brown if he stays injury free is a top player, but that’s a big if.

Yep agree similarly to Mikey - agree all of those except Dee. He’s arguably a top 3 hooker in Wales. If we get rid of him we’d need to replace him and therefore it’s likely he’d be replaced with someone worse. So I don’t see the point! He’s one of our best players!

Thing is though, we’d need to replace a lot of the guys in the list above as we need injury cover and a full squad. Where do we get them from? The regional clubs in Super Rygbi Cymru? That’s what it’s meant to be for so I’d be up for that. But would they be better than those in the list above? It would be a gamble for sure. The alternative is overseas but I think you’re against that from memory Welsh Mushroom? And what quality would they be if their wages were the same as those in the list? As I’m presuming that we’re already spending up to the max as it is?

Well the problem in Wales right now is I just dont think we have enough top level pro's. I am against Overseas signings in principle but at this point Welsh Rugby simply is suffering from poor pathways. If we had genuine top draw players who were Welsh I'd prefer us to sign those but right now for example there are not the front 5 players to support this. So there would have to be a interim position where I would like to see us bring in overseas players to drive standards until we can bring youngsters through at that level.

For me Super Rygbi Cymru is already a bit of a disaster. It wont be a proper pathway until they make radical changes. The issue I have with it is there are loads of players contracted at that level who will never make the step up to regional rugby who are to old. I think it would have been better to have a 8 team league that would be made up of U23 players. That way you could have a platform where U18, U20 and senior U23 players all play against each other to really test themselves against the slightly older generations. I would scrap regional academies completely, have no direct affiliations but make sure each of the 8 teams has professional coaching, physios etc. That would be where I would be promoting promising head coaches/coaches etc and use it for a training stage for them as well.

The reason I wouldn't have direct regional affiliations is so you could have a draft system from that league similar to the NFL. Each end of season Regions could then pick up any promising players they need for their squads. Order of picks could be picked on how a region places in the league each year. This would stop youngsters getting tied to regions and allow them to move freely depending on each regional teams needs.

While I'm at it I dont think I would have allowed Newport, Cardiff, Swansea as all 3 locations have regional teams. I would have preferred other clubs to have joined so there are no regional/club biases and i dont think its in the best interest of welsh rugby to have 2 teams at each of those locations. Personally Ponty, Neath, Mertyr probably would have been my replacements for those 3.

Regarding recruitment I would use Super Rugby as also a pathway to qualify players for Wales if needed. I'd put each of the teams on equal squad spends so every side has the chance to succeed and that we can see which managers have a knack of coaching, signing & developing players.

I could keep on all day about how this kind of thing should be working......but if they just did the above it would probably improve our pathways massively.

I agree with a lot of that WM.  I'd go further with the overseas thing though.  It's unlikely that any system will be perfect, and even with the best will in the world and the best academy coaches and systems we're going to have times when we don't produce, say, 4 awesome young tightheads.  Hell, we struggle to get 1 or 2 across the pro teams.  So we're going to have times when the succession planning just isn't consistent and we're going to get gaps.  So for me we should absolutely be looking worldwide to plug the gaps.  It doesn't block anyone, in my opinion, if there is no one good enough to be blocked.  Use overseas to fill the gaps caused naturally by lean years in some positions.  And if and when the next wave of players come through then we can look to let those overseas players go and pick home grown talent.  

On the Super Rygbi Cymru thing as an U23 comp - again, in an ideal world that would be great.  But we just don't have the playing numbers for that IMO.  8 x squads of U23 players.  30 per squad maybe?  That's 240 U23 players at a semi-pro level, with a large number of those leaving each year as they become over 23.  We just don't have that many coming through so we'd end up filling the squads with boys from the lower leagues who are not good enough.  Plus, there are a huge number of good players over 23 in those Super Rugby Cymru teams.  Grizzled old players and some who have played pro rugby.  I'm a big believer in younger players learning from these older players/pros.  The tricks of the trade, dark arts and all that.  Without any of the older guys to learn from it just becomes like an extension of academy for older kids and they're not exposed to to the real world of rugby.  And that then creates a gulf if and when they are asked to step up to pro.  Plus, where do players go when they're 24?  Just jettisoned into the lower leagues?  If they're good enough for semi-pro I say keep them at that level beyond 23 and let the U23 players compete against them and if they're good enough then they can oust them from the squad.  But if they can't oust them then they're not up to it themselves and the older player can stay in.  I do feel it's an arbitrary age personally.  A player might come good from semi-pro at 25.  Less likely these days but I wouldn't want to throw players on the scrap heap based on age alone.

In terms of playing numbers I dont think finding 240 players will be difficult.  Wales U20 & U18 squads probably make up 80 of those.  The whole point is to have them compete with at least 1 other person in those positions for those international selections.  So that would be 160.  The additional 80 would likely be filled by the 21-22 age gap.  That's before you factor any overseas project players that Wales may need at international for positional requirements such as Tighthead for example.  Reason I would bring residence qualified players in at this league is because of the 5 year qualifying period.  In order for that to be worthwhile you need to identify and start this in this age band.
In reality when looking at Pro squads in England & Wales when I looked at this we had 300+ easily.  I dont think playing numbers in these categories will be a problem at all.


I'm not saying there are no fringe cases of guys above U23 level that wouldnt make good pro's but I would believe other mechanics would catch those players if Super Rugby was setup correctly.  Basically any pro or semi pro after this age grade would either play in England or France.  They are not lost out of the system if they are late bloomers because regions would still be able to sign these at a later point.  Our goal should be to make sure the paid players in Wales are all on a upward curve.  I don't believe Semi Pro or Fully Pro players in wales should be designed for retirement of those players.  If anything aside from the odd superstar players the majority of senior guys should be moved on to other countries.  It helps them if later on they do decide to go into coaching if they see how other countries are operating.  When they do transition into coaching this will undoubtedly will give them ideas to implement that may have come from different experiences.

In terms of overseas signings playing a role at regional level I touched on this in my point above in Super Rugby.  If they identified the shortfalls early enough they simply can try to find the right age grade talent, recruit them to Super Rugby where they can start to make headway to the 5 year residency qualification.  That way Wales will always have 4 tighthead options available to them without them actually always being raised in Wales.  That should be a goal as both regions and wales benefit from this strategy.  At the moment we dont have the luxury to implement this system as it would take at least 5 years to see this come through the system.  So at the moment restricting overseas players is unavoidable.  But I dont think throwing large amounts of money at imports who can't represent wales is not a good strategy in the long term.   I would after 6 or 7 years completely restrict any other than Welsh Qualified player recruitment to no more than 1 or 2 per region.  But at the moment it's impossible and would clearly cause a collapse in performances at regional level.

It's Freddie Thomas we are apparently after now. I would like that if it meant we could lose Joe Davies, and really we should probably be looking at another lock in addition to that, someone who's a giant. Then two LHs and two THs, if we can lose Rh Jones, Coleman and Arhip. I'd lose Benjamin too and maybe look for a NWQ player, but we seem okay at hooker regardless. Reed still being around shows that we also need another 10.

The academy structure would be improved if firstly, we stop giving the women's game money, or at least leave it as it is rather than increase it. It's clearly not doing much... then we need do invest in scouting every corner of the Region, in addition have scouts around England and overseas - get the islanders into Monmouth school and our academy (just an example). Once players have been identified invest in them, if they're no good then drop them - we seem to keep hold of average players we invest in just in the hope of seeing a return - probably how Nathan Buck got a pro contract. Get quality coaches from overseas at every level, when they move on make sure there are able replacements and no jobs for the boyo's. Have the academies play how the Dragons want to play, ensure there is some synergy there - it requires investment and good coaching at every level, every season.

Some of our academy guys have recently made the step-up so it's proof that we can develop good players. Whilst we look for more, we need more players from overseas who are ready to play first team rugby. Dai wasn't proactive enough in recruitment, but we are a lot better a team than I expected. Need to look for South Africans in the various leagues around the world, and maybe look at Cheetas and Puma's in Currie Cup rugby.

Steff Hughes leaving Dragons next month. Seems like odd timing just a few weeks into the season. Not sure what's happened there? But I think we need to look at others in the centres anyway so not the worst news.

Edit: I've just read on Twitter that he's off to Old Glory RFC in the US.

He started off quite well, but hasn't been that player for a while now.

For me, a few Dragons fans overhyped him straight away and he hasn't really been that effective a signing for us.

Guess he won't be on S Pedwar C for a while either then ha.

Good move for the player and actually I think is very good news for us. I hope that will see Ackerman getting some more games this year.

By all accounts we have 20+ players out of contract and i do hope we make some Premiership players a priority. There are plenty of promising Welsh youngsters that I would happily get signed to us. Hennessey would be top of my shopping list.

I said we should probably lose Owen and Hughes. Owen is playing well again, despite his limitations and he usually always plays well. Hughes had a strong start with us but then fell away. Always been a really average player, so I feel that move works in our favour. If Ackerman is still not available for a while (nasty injury so I expect he is unavailable), then letting go of the loan-South African doesn't seem like a bright idea now.

Welshmushroom wrote:Good move for the player and actually I think is very good news for us.  I hope that will see Ackerman getting some more games this year.

By all accounts we have 20+ players out of contract and i do hope we make some Premiership players a priority.  There are plenty of promising Welsh youngsters that I would happily get signed to us.  Hennessey would be top of my shopping list.  

That we be good. There seems to be an abundance of decent Welsh players at 12, but not many at 13. Macs Page from Scarlets looks promising. Reckon we could get Dafydd Jenkins? No, I don't either.

We've got Cameron Jones on loan from Ospreys. He is a decent young player, he's big, but perhaps lacking experience.

We’ve brought Aki Seiuli back on a short term loan deal to cover our prop crisis, before he joins a side in the US in 2025.

He isn't the best of scrummagers etc, but it's probably as good as we could've managed so short term.

So, Rhodri Williams called up to the Wales squad. Sorry but I just don’t see him as a test level player. I want to support our Dragons players but he’s been underwhelming at club level for a long time, for me. Anyone else surprised?

Scott Williams training with Dragons and hoping for a deal. He used to be one of my favourite players years back but I really don’t want the Dragons to be a place where ageing players try to cling onto the end of their careers. I mean, it sort of already is that sort of place as we’ve often taken in other regions’ cast offs. But I can see this ending up a bit like Steff Hughes where the best years are long behind him but he’s offered a contract after showing a few good things in training, but come match time he struggles to perform at the required level. Would be awesome if he could get to the level he had a few years back. But sadly I doubt it, which is why he’s without a club currently.

TAFKA The Oracle wrote:So, Rhodri Williams called up to the Wales squad. Sorry but I just don’t see him as a test level player. I want to support our Dragons players but he’s been underwhelming at club level for a long time, for me. Anyone else surprised?

He's better than Bevan, Kieran Hardy, Aled Davies; he does a lot of things well (like passing). It's not a surprise for me, but I think he should have got his second chance a few seasons back. I think Wales should also be looking at Nye Thomas from Sale.

Bringing in Scott Williams doesn't look good for Dai, it's typical really. He's not the player he used to be and will probably just be injured all the time. I'd rather us use Wilson.

TAFKA The Oracle wrote:So, Rhodri Williams called up to the Wales squad. Sorry but I just don’t see him as a test level player. I want to support our Dragons players but he’s been underwhelming at club level for a long time, for me. Anyone else surprised?

I am - especially cause this can't be a selection with the next world cup in mind.

Gatlands selections this time around have totally confused me given he wanted to develop players but his selections dont look like long term thinking to me.

I dont get why Gatland is picking Tomkins and Watkin as our centres. There are better options there.

I dont get either Williams or Bevan at 9.

Rogers and Murray either. Rogers cant defend, and Murray may have shown some glimpses but having a good game or two shouldn't have displaced the credit other wingers should have had in the bank.

Thought SLH, Rosser and Coughlan probably should have had a look in.

TAFKA The Oracle wrote:Scott Williams training with Dragons and hoping for a deal. He used to be one of my favourite players years back but I really don’t want the Dragons to be a place where ageing players try to cling onto the end of their careers. I mean, it sort of already is that sort of place as we’ve often taken in other regions’ cast offs. But I can see this ending up a bit like Steff Hughes where the best years are long behind him but he’s offered a contract after showing a few good things in training, but come match time he struggles to perform at the required level. Would be awesome if he could get to the level he had a few years back. But sadly I doubt it, which is why he’s without a club currently.

I get he still wants to earn a living in the sport but he would be a poor signing for us. Partly because if he plays then he will take away chances from youngsters. Part of the reason the Dragons always end up in this mess is because they are signing for the here and now. We are not going to be turning things around in that time frame. Realistically it would take us 3-5 years. So it would make sense to start building a team up with talented players that can be ready by that point.

Williams won't help with the long term plan. He was a great player but his injury record alone the last 5 years should be enough to deter signing him. No doubt that means Dai will pick him up in the next few weeks....

Coach sacked.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/cz9x5w1xp75o

Hmmmmm.

I suppose it's the best time to do it, if we can get a coach in pretty quickly (4 weeks until Cardiff or so).

I feel for him a bit. He had to take a lot on last season, managing defence etc too. Results are never good enough, but there has been a slight improvement in performances overall.

His signings have been a bit questionable, but we are shopping in the bargain basement too. I feel like we should've had a DOR above him, let him concentrate on attack and his coaching staff need to concentrate firmly on their roles (OB). He didn't really have a good support system in place, as Hobbs is also very raw coaching wise.

Yeah, I never felt he was ‘top guy’ material. So agree a DoR above him was needed. Just a bit too early in his coaching career perhaps as he hadn’t proven himself at pro level (although I guess how do you do that unless given a shot at the head coach job?!). But it never felt right with him being in charge.

I’m sure there will be calls for TiaTia to be given the job permanently as people tend to blindly trust southern hemisphere coaches more than our own (“he’s an ex all black so he must be good”, etc.) but he hasn’t proven himself in a top job anywhere either as far as I know? Just cutting his teeth as a coach.

We could really do with a Toby Booth-type coach right now…….