Newport Gwent Dragons 2016/17 thread

[Luckless Pedestrian]

First topic message reminder :

I understand that some players haven't had a break for a while, but still, either it's a must-win game (with a bonus point) or it isn't.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

Fair enough. I know Dowlais can't see them either. I've always thought of you two as kindred spirits.

[Stone Motif]

Fair enough. I know Dowlais can't see them either. I've always thought of you two as kindred spirits.

Harsh

[Stone Motif]

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/15038364.Rodney_Parade_chief_hits_back_at_Graham_Westley/?ref=mr&lp=5

What was that I was saying about two marbles and a conker again?

[Luckless Pedestrian]

"We are not that far away from the Blues," said Jones. "It's a tough challenge but our home form has been good and if that continues we will move up the table a little with a few away wins.

"Connacht and Edinburgh are both good sides but are within our reach and we'll keep working hard in the league because we want to prove that we are on the right road.

"We want to improve on the last couple of seasons. Well, the last 10 seasons really."

[RiscaGame]

Trouble is with catching two of these teams he mentions, is we have to travel to them still.

A lot of our away woes are down to him though, in my opinion. His selections generally baffling, as are his tactics.

Looking at our fixtures for the rest of the season, home wins might be rare/non existent too.

[RiscaGame]

Though that said, if our home record worsens it might stop people hiding behind that awful 6/7 stat or whatever it is.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

Newport Gwent Dragons will hand a first home appearance to Robson Blake in Sunday’s Anglo-Welsh Cup clash with Newcastle at Rodney Parade.

The 21-year-old back row forward has earned a professional deal thanks to his exploits with Bedwas in the Principality Premiership and made his regional bow off the bench at Leicester in November.

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/dragons/15051086.Strong_running_Blake_to_make_Rodney_Parade_bow_with_Dragons/

[RiscaGame]

15 Carl Meyer, 14 Adam Hughes ©, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Adam Warren, 11 Tom Prydie, 10 Dorian Jones, 9 Sarel Pretorius; 1 Thomas Davies, 2 Rhys Buckley, 3 Brok Harris, 4 Matthew Screech, 5 Rynard Landman, 6 Ollie Griffiths, 7 Nic Cudd, 8 Harri Keddie.

Replacements: Thomas Rhys Thomas, Sam Hobbs, Lloyd Fairbrother, James Thomas, Robson Blake, Charlie Davies, Angus O’Brien, Sam Beard.

Seems like Falcons are going pretty strong for this. Hard to tell how many of our team are first choice really. Could be a tough test for our proud home record.

[RiscaGame]

BTW, I love Adam Hughes and all that, but I can't see what captaincy credentials he has

[Luckless Pedestrian]

Has Adam Hughes captained us before? You'd think Landman would be next in line.

[Guest]

Newport Gwent Dragons will hand a first home appearance to Robson Blake in Sunday’s Anglo-Welsh Cup clash with Newcastle at Rodney Parade.

The 21-year-old back row forward has earned a professional deal thanks to his exploits with Bedwas in the Principality Premiership and made his regional bow off the bench at Leicester in November.

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/dragons/15051086.Strong_running_Blake_to_make_Rodney_Parade_bow_with_Dragons/

Some cracking names coming through the Dragons ranks to be fair.

[GavinDragon]

Excited to see Robson Blake in the flesh.

Tearing up trees at WP level.

Big step up to this level, but certainly has the raw material.

[Stone Motif]

Excited to see Robson Blake in the flesh.

Tearing up trees at WP level.

Big step up to this level, but certainly has the raw material.

How tall is he?

[Stone Motif]

BTW, I love Adam Hughes and all that, but I can't see what captaincy credentials he has

Especially playing on the wing, ludicrous

[RiscaGame]

Exactly. There's no sound logic behind it. It's captaincy anyway, but for a pro team? Let's mug Landman off further.

[GavinDragon]

Excited to see Robson Blake in the flesh.

Tearing up trees at WP level.

Big step up to this level, but certainly has the raw material.

How tall is he?

6'3" and about 20 stone. Made yards off two carried in the short time he was on today.

[wayne]

Excited to see Robson Blake in the flesh.

Tearing up trees at WP level.

Big step up to this level, but certainly has the raw material.

How tall is he?

6'3" and about 20 stone. Made yards off two carried in the short time he was on today.

The pitch looked awful Gav, should the game have started?

[GavinDragon]

Nope. I did hear that if it had been cancelled, we would have had to foot the bill of their accomodation and travel. Not sure if that is true though.

[wayne]

Nope. I did hear that if it had been cancelled, we would have had to foot the bill of their accomodation and travel. Not sure if that is true though.

Cheers mate.

[demosthenes]

Nope. I did hear that if it had been cancelled, we would have had to foot the bill of their accomodation and travel. Not sure if that is true though.

Is it not down to the referee? From the pictures I have seen that pitch was never playable.

[munkian]

Prydie and Croswell being released apparently

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/dragons/15091793.Dragons_duo_set_for_exit__No_new_deals_on_table_for_Crosswell_and_Prydie/

[RiscaGame]

Pretty disappointed they're doing that to Crosswell.

Prydie unfortunately does pick up injuries a fair bit.

[munkian]

Pretty disappointed they're doing that to Crosswell.

Prydie unfortunately does pick up injuries a fair bit.

Yeah, Poopie for Croswell.

Prydie is a bit of a tit apparently.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

Prydie I can understand - he's injured a lot of the time, and doesn't offer much when he's fit. But I am surprised we're letting Crosswell go. I know we've got Keddie coming through, and by the sounds of it they really rate Robson Blake, but still. I'd have preferred us to keep Crosswell and get rid of Lewis Evans, to be honest.

[munkian]

Prydie I can understand - he's injured a lot of the time, and doesn't offer much when he's fit. But I am surprised we're letting Crosswell go. I know we've got Keddie coming through, and by the sounds of it they really rate Robson Blake, but still. I'd have preferred us to keep Crosswell and get rid of Lewis Evans, to be honest.

No chance with him running The Lamb now - post match pints for the boyos

[Stone Motif]

Prydie I can understand - he's injured a lot of the time, and doesn't offer much when he's fit. But I am surprised we're letting Crosswell go. I know we've got Keddie coming through, and by the sounds of it they really rate Robson Blake, but still. I'd have preferred us to keep Crosswell and get rid of Lewis Evans, to be honest.

They want the NWQ slot apparently. Though thought we'd have a couple now Landman and Harris are residents. Disagree on Lewis better player in the back row than Crosswalk imo.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

Let's wait and see who they bring in then.

[Stone Motif]

Let's wait and see who they bring in then.

Oh, some comedy clown shoes players with chronic injuries no doubt.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

In fairness, our last few southern-hemisphere signings have been pretty good, considering what a (relatively) unappealing destination we must be.

[Guest]

The thing is, you just know that Crosswell will go somewhere else and will play excellently. It happens to us a lot. The coaches do not see what a player offers, offloads him, and lo and behold he ends up tearing up the English premiership! Prydie will probably join Leicester and be their star player for the next decade It's often that our coaches cannot get the best out of these players, and then ditch them to bring in new players that they can't get the best out of, and the cycle continues. So the common denominator is...... poor coaches!

[Stone Motif]

The thing is, you just know that Crosswell will go somewhere else and will play excellently.  It happens to us a lot.  The coaches do not see what a player offers, offloads him, and lo and behold he ends up tearing up the English premiership!  Prydie will probably join Leicester and be their star player for the next decade   It's often that our coaches cannot get the best out of these players, and then ditch them to bring in new players that they can't get the best out of, and the cycle continues.  So the common denominator is...... poor coaches!

Well, even very good coaches might have to cut their cloth if their budget was this far under the cap, so it's not the only factor. But yes, whilst we have an OK crop of NWQ by our low standards there have been plenty of duds.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

Another proud day in the history of the Dragons:

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/dragons/15094398.Dragons_to_move_Cardiff_Blues_game_to_regional_ground/#comments-anchor

The Exiles have primacy of tenure under English Football League rules so the rugby had to move.

If Stuart Davies didn't know last summer that County had primacy of tenure, then he should have bothered himself to find out.

What a f*cking embarrassment.

[RiscaGame]

Makes me proud. Nice day out on the train to Ebbw though.

[Stone Motif]

Makes me proud. Nice day out on the train to Ebbw though.

Explains why Gav's two Ebbw chairmen were down to see Pinkie the other day

[Guest]

I don't want to sound like a snob, and no offence to Cross Keys fans, but Pandy Park?! How is that being suggested by the Argus? I watched my mate play their last season. It is NOT suitable for pro rugby, unless your only criteria is that it has a pitch with markings. This is our BIGGEST gate of the season, traditionally. This would probably be 8 or 9000k (our capacity is only around 9500 or so now I think). How many will we fit in Pandy Park? What about the financial loss?

Pandy Park:

[RiscaGame]

Pandy is not fit for purpose. Neither is Ebbw really. The whole thing is going to be a nightmare, as people who pay for the Bisley aren't going to fit in the stand at either ground (I'd imagine) and they're going to lose so much money from not having adequate hospitality. The only solution I can see is they hire an alternative venue for after the game or something?

But it's a chance for the whole of Gwent to unite and the disenfranchised can see a game outside of Newport, so maybe it's a wonderful thing. I've never been on the train the other way from Risca, so what a treat for myself

[RiscaGame]

Anybody seen Virginia Park recently? Apparently that's winning Simon Thomas' poll, but I saw somebody say yesterday it isn't any good nowadays.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

I saw that poll (I voted for EXP) and he's asked for the opinion of Dragons fans, but there's nothing to stop non-Dragons fans voting. Maybe Blues fans want the game in Caerphilly.

[RiscaGame]

Well there is that. I get that's it's meaningless. I voted for EXP too.

[RiscaGame]

Kairdiff fans have it easier than most NGD fans for this game anyway, as Keys or Ebbw is on the same line, where as Newportonians don't have that luxury.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

I drove up for the game against Northampton, it wasn't too bad.

[RiscaGame]

As did I. Twice, because I left my tickets in the house. Back then I don't think the train ran to Ebbw Vale town, which it does now. That helps me out now I don't have to walk from Parkway up the couple of miles or whatever.

[Stone Motif]

I did the charabanc from Newport. Awful weather on the way up, if I remember rightly. BBCL decked right off in the car park after, three cheers for Gwent, etc.

[RiscaGame]

Hip hip. Lovely day all round . Probably the last time we got to see Brew run one in for us too. Was worth drowning for that alone. Plus I'm sure they did thatchers.

[Stone Motif]

Such promise...Mungo carried really well, and Gough put in some big hits. Then we got back to the Port and the season went to sh1te as usual

[Stone Motif]

So, Craggy Island, the world's greatest ref and the greatest fly half to come out of the Gwent valleys since Dai Watkins. It's got five points written all over it. For Connacht.

[RiscaGame]

Yeah it did.

Oh, in the excitement of driving back home I forgot to check our team. I'm already underwhelmed if TGFHTEFTGVSDW is starting mind.

[RiscaGame]

15 Tom Prydie, 14 Adam Hughes, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Adam Warren, 11 Pat Howard, 10 Dorian Jones, 9 Tavis Knoyle; 1 Sam Hobbs, 2 Elliot Dee, 3 Brok Harris, 4 Nick Crosswell, 5 Rynard Landman, 6 Ollie Griffiths, 7 Nic Cudd, 8 Lewis Evans ©.

Replacements; Darran Harris, Thomas Davies, Lloyd Fairbrother, Cory Hill, Harrison Keddie, Sarel Pretorius, Angus O’Brien, Sam Beard.

Right, front row ok. Lightweight second row again and we should be using Hill anyway (our sole Team Wales squad member), I'm not a fan of that backrow, given how lightweight our pack is anyway.

With regards to the backs, I'm not bothered by who plays 9, but I expect people are having kittens over Sarel not starting. I wouldn't start Mini Kingsley, Sam Beard should start and after his awful attempt on Taute last week, I wouldn't start Hughes.

Lastly, seemingly Prydie and Crosswell are off, yet they both start again. Very strange, but then not surprising for Kingsley.

[RiscaGame]

Oh aye. Strange to see Harris involved too

[Luckless Pedestrian]

I'm not sure Kingsley knows what he's doing. I can sort of understand him having one eye on the home game against Leinster, but to be frank we have nothing left to play for this season, so we should be going all out to win every game, and we should also be going all out to end this shameful away record we have. The idea of a team as unsuccessful as the Dragons picking and choosing which games to target is laughable.

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