Dragons vs Blues boxing day

First topic message reminder :

Dragons Team to face Cardiff Blues:15 Daniel Evans, 14Will Harries,13 Pat Leach, 12Ashley Smith,11 Hallam Amos, 10Jason Tovey, 9Wayne Evans; 1Owen Evans, 2T. Rhys Thomas, 3Nathan Buck, 4Andrew Coombs (c), 5Cory Hill, 6Netani Talei, 7Lewis Evans, 8Toby Faletau.
Replacements:Sam Parry, Aaron Coundley, Francisco Chaparro, Rob Sidoli, Nic Cudd, Richie Rees, Steffan Jones, Ross Wardle.
Cardiff Blues: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Gavin Evans, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Dan Fish, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Lloyd Williams; 1 Sam Hobbs (c), 2 Kristian Dacey, 3 Benoit Bourrust, 4 Chris Dicomidis, 5 Filo Paulo, 6 Macauley Cook, 7 Josh Navidi, 8 Robin Copeland.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Ellis Jenkins, 20 Rory Watts-Jones, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Richard Smith

GavinDragon wrote:hhhhm 8500 looks unlikely then

Even the uncovered stand behind the goal was full, so the attendance must've been easily around 11000.

Risca Rev wrote:Still, if you allow the best Welsh ref to ref at Sardis today, you're probably not going to get a good official otherwise

He had a good gome to be fair. Dan Godfrey put in an accidental spear tackle on one of the Cardiff players (no malice at all in it and the player did flip with momentum) and he gave a penalty and just told him to be careful next time. The player was fine and even the Cardiff team seemed to applaud him for the decision. No point in spoiling a good game. Well done Nigel  

Oh yeah, plus the swinging arm round the head that the touchy didn't want to know about. It wasn't too bad, but it was certainly at least a penalty. Crazy.

The attendance must be near 11k yeah, particularly with the Sytner stand being used (which I thought was for football only).

Steffan you must be hoping the regions jump ship then your beloved ponty can go pro? Oh but they will be backed by the WRU-that surely puts you in a moral conundrum no?

GavinDragon wrote:Steffan you must be hoping the regions jump ship then your beloved ponty can go pro? Oh but they will be backed by the WRU-that surely puts you in a moral conundrum no?

A pro-Ponty team will just cause more problems in the future and resentment from other clubs like we have now. Think East, West and North regions are the only way its gonna work. Maybe invest in the Welsh Premiership though to keep a healthy club game going

Steffan wrote:

GavinDragon wrote:Steffan you must be hoping the regions jump ship then your beloved ponty can go pro? Oh but they will be backed by the WRU-that surely puts you in a moral conundrum no?

A pro-Ponty team will just cause more problems in the future and resentment from other clubs like we have now. Think East, West and North regions are the only way its gonna work. Maybe invest in the Welsh Premiership though to keep a healthy club game going

Fair play was not expecting such a measured and sensible response. I applaud you sir    and thats the way it should have been done ten years ago

GavinDragon wrote:

Steffan wrote:

GavinDragon wrote:Steffan you must be hoping the regions jump ship then your beloved ponty can go pro? Oh but they will be backed by the WRU-that surely puts you in a moral conundrum no?

A pro-Ponty team will just cause more problems in the future and resentment from other clubs like we have now. Think East, West and North regions are the only way its gonna work. Maybe invest in the Welsh Premiership though to keep a healthy club game going

Fair play was not expecting such a measured and sensible response. I applaud you sir    and thats the way it should have been done ten years ago

Except the clubs (and their supporters) rejected a similar idea 10 years ago. Also the WRU were broke.

Looks like Copeland only did eight mins in the bin too.

Having watched it back, I do think Pat Leach was our MOTM, not Toby. Great defensive shift by Patch.

Risca Rev wrote:Looks like Copeland only did eight mins in the bin too.

Cheating Irish feck.

  

Can't be right, but it's what the clock on S4C said.

Risca Rev wrote:  

Can't be right, but it's what the clock on S4C said.

There's the prob. A Welsh clock that speaks wibble.

I get the dragons news updates through Facebook (saddo!) and yesterday it said that the game was sold out. So, either a 3rd of the crowd didn't turn up or they reported it wrongly over the tannoy at the game. Or, we've somehow reduced capacity by 3,000 (which I doubt as we now have terracing/seating open on both ends too).

On another note, we now have a big screen at the ground. How modern and up to date are we! I remember Lyn Jones having a bit of a sly dig at the Dragons management a while back about losing out on decisions as we didn't have a screen like most other grounds. And voila, a big screen appears!

On another note, we now have a big screen at the ground. How modern and up to date are we! I remember Lyn Jones having a bit of a sly dig at the Dragons management a while back about losing out on decisions as we didn't have a screen like most other grounds. And voila, a big screen appears!

The clock was also working..... The wonders of technology brought to RP!

The capacity of RP was just over 9K. When the Argus terrace was there the capacity was 10K but the new stand lowered the total capacity. The new north terrace and seats at the opposite end have probably increased it back to around 9,500. So there were about 1,000 people missing from the official attendance  

I think RP only now holds about 9,100 since the new stand as put in place. I know it was definitely reduced from previously. So 8,500 would probably look reasonably full.

The Scarlets attendance was officially just below the maximum of 14,800 ish but there looked like loads of empty seats there to me and I am sure i heard the attendance announced as 13,000 and something.

What did you all think of Lewis Evans yesterday, i thought he was really really good seven personally.

Jhamer25 wrote:What did you all think of Lewis Evans yesterday, i thought he was really really good seven personally.

He's been knocking on door for while was in initial squad few seasons back but got injured, for me he is pretty much on par with Shingler at the moment but behind Lydiate, Warburton Faleatu, Tipuric and Jones.

doctornickolas wrote:I think RP only now holds about 9,100 since the new stand as put in place. I know it was definitely reduced from previously. So 8,500 would probably look reasonably full.

The Scarlets attendance was officially just below the maximum of 14,800 ish but there looked like loads of empty seats there to me and I am sure i heard the attendance announced as 13,000 and something.  

Did you count them? I bet you did.
Maybe their occupants were at the bar, in the toilets, stuck in a traffic jam, etc etc.
You don't like the regions do you doctornick. Whatever they do you'd still find ways to knock them. Why is that?

Nathan Buck the dragons tighthead had his best ever game for dragons. The scrum was good. Tovey was excellent off the boot. We kicked when we needed to with no pointless kicking. And tbh the scoreline flattered the blues.

Yes thought Lewis Evans was the best 7 on the pitch

dragon4life
Your right about Tovey but the scrums were a shambles. If anything Benout Bourroust had his best game ever for the blues, the dragons probably have the weakest scrum in the Rabo and it has shown at certain parts of the season e.g. Edinburgh and Bath to name a few. If i was a dragons fan Rhys gill, Ben Broster and Rhodri Jones would beat the top of my list to sign for next season.

Jhamer25 wrote:Yes thought Lewis Evans was the best 7 on the pitch

dragon4life
Your right about Tovey but the scrums were a shambles. If anything Benout Bourroust had his best game ever for the blues, the dragons probably have the weakest scrum in the Rabo and it has shown at certain parts of the season e.g. Edinburgh and Bath to name a few. If i was a dragons fan Rhys gill, Ben Broster and Rhodri Jones would beat the top of my list to sign for next season.

Jhamer,

Dont think you will get many of us Dragon fans arguing with you on the scrum point though Chaparro seems a good signing.

I doubt if we could afford Gill, where is Broster these days? As for Rh Jones well I guess now he has made break through to Welsh set up maybe he will expect more first choice gametime but will he get it at PYS. If not he may well look to move but I remember saying same about Mitchell and he went to Exeter.

Place looked full to me, Bisley was sold out and that never happens, even the south stand was used

Apparently Rhodri Jones is pretty unwilling to leave the Turks, as he's Scarlets through and through.

I don't think we need Gill, we need a tight head.

Broster is apparently in Biarritz. Double swoop for him and Brewy would be lovely.

Don't want to sound disrespectful to the blues, but pretty much every opponent for the last few seasons has demolished our scrum. We're usually going backwards or at best collapsing and giving away penalties. Either we've improved massively in 1 week or the Blues scrum was poorer than ours - we even had the nudge on a few times if memory serves against the Blues. That never happens!

Risca Rev wrote:Apparently Rhodri Jones is pretty unwilling to leave the Turks, as he's Scarlets through and through.

I don't think we need Gill, we need a tight head.

Broster is apparently in Biarritz. Double swoop for him and Brewy would be lovely.

Well if he's unwilling thats fair enough but if he wants to make sure of further Welsh games he may have to unless he becomes 3rd choice at the Scarlets.

Brew and Broster be a great New Years treat lol.

dragon4life wrote:Nathan Buck the dragons tighthead had his best ever game for dragons. The scrum was good. Tovey was excellent off the boot. We kicked when we needed to with no pointless kicking. And tbh the scoreline flattered the blues.

He was up against Sam Hobbs though who is one of the worst scrummaging LH i have seen in a pro team.

You guys should take Rhodri Jones or Horatiu Pungea the big Romanian TH from the Scarlets. There are currently 4 very capable TH there, at least one of them is wasted.

Rhodri Jones is wasted really. Think it would be great to have Adam, Rhodri and Samson as first choice at regions. It's great to see loyalty like that, but I do think it would benefit him to move.

Risca Rev wrote:Rhodri Jones is wasted really. Think it would be great to have Adam, Rhodri and Samson as first choice at regions. It's great to see loyalty like that, but I do think it would benefit him to move.

Sssshhhhhhh Rev, but dare I say Central Contracts may sort that problem out a bit   

Ha. Quite right beds

bedfordwelsh wrote:

Jhamer25 wrote:Yes thought Lewis Evans was the best 7 on the pitch

dragon4life
Your right about Tovey but the scrums were a shambles. If anything Benout Bourroust had his best game ever for the blues, the dragons probably have the weakest scrum in the Rabo and it has shown at certain parts of the season e.g. Edinburgh and Bath to name a few. If i was a dragons fan Rhys gill, Ben Broster and Rhodri Jones would beat the top of my list to sign for next season.

Jhamer,

Dont think you will get many of us Dragon fans arguing with you on the scrum point though Chaparro seems a good signing.

I doubt if we could afford Gill, where is Broster these days? As for Rh Jones well I guess now he has made break through to Welsh set up maybe he will expect more first choice gametime but will he get it at PYS.  If not he may well look to move but I remember saying same about Mitchell and he went to Exeter.

I do think all three signigns would be a realistic set of players to sign

Biaritz are definitely going down to to Pro D2, I watched Ben against Worcester and he tore through the Worcester pack; i'm not saying he will be the answer or a a great tight head but he is capable of doing a job,WQ and still looks like he has some steam left in the tank.

Rhodri Jones needs to do whats bets for his career, not look where his hear is i think. Its great he is loyal to us and wants to stay but with Samson seen as our way forward, Rhodri has great potential and needs to play where he is first choice. I know he came through our academies and it's not nice to see him go, but I think it will help his career in the long run. i'm pretty sure he is out of contract this season and the Dragons should be ready for him.

Rhys Gill is second choice being Vunipolo (which is stupid because he can't scrummage) and I've heard he is keen to come back to Wales, if the dragons lay down a descent offer, i think he would take it. He is so underestimated as a player, he is a sound scrummager and would be the best signing the Dragons could make.

It's always frustrated me why Aaron Coundley hasn't been played more, he isn't the best scrummager but he offer much more than any other prop they have there at the moment. Chapparo is a good rugby player, still not the best scrummager but he is a good loose player. Owen Evans, Dan Way and Nathan Buck are all a complete waist of space in my eye's.

I also forgot to mention Nicky Thomas at the Ospreys, I think he has been injured which is why Dan Suter is ahead of him at the moment but I would have put him in the same bracket as Samson Lee when he was in the Junior World Cup; he also has loads of potential and is a strong scrummager who can only improve;just look at Samson Lee after only 2 seasons of game time, that's what Nicky Thomas needs.

So there are option out there for both the Blues and Dragons, they just need to see it.

Coundley is pretty injury prone. Has picked up some awful ones. I was surprised to see him on the bench the other night, so he is clearly thought pretty highly of still.

Risca Rev wrote:Coundley is pretty injury prone. Has picked up some awful ones. I was surprised to see him on the bench the other night, so he is clearly thought pretty highly of still.

Oh right
But im sure i have seen him in the squads but not be picked for the 23
Maybe it is little injuries keeping him out. Shame though

munkian wrote:Place looked full to me, Bisley was sold out and that never happens, even the south stand was used

Yep and it was great to see Dave rammed to the hilt.