Dragons Lair: Victory Pod!

The Dragons won their recent match against Zebre with a score of 20-13. It was not a pretty or perfect performance, but the Dragons managed to climb off the bottom of the URC standings. They scored two tries through their defense and had good game management from Will Reid. Jarrod Rosser and Tame Basham also had standout performances. The Dragons' defense was strong, but they lived off their opponents' mistakes. Overall, it was an important win for the Dragons, even though the performance was not outstanding. Welcome to the Dragon's Lair. Hello and welcome to the Dragon's Lair podcast, your home of all things Dragons RFC and rugby in the region. I'm Jamie and joining me, as always, is Gavin Thomas. How are we, Gavin? I'm very well, Jamie, very well. I've just returned from Wales, in which I sought to discover people think they can charge you for a fiver or a pint in certain parts of South Wales, but I'm very well. Yes, the price of beer is rocked in that mind. It's not like the old days, Gav, £2 a pint up the valley for the women's clubs. Those days are gone now. The prices are going up. I was watching my mate's band in Merthyr and four beers was £20. It's outrageous. The best thing to do is go to Wetherspoons. If you can put aside the Tim Martin, Brexity stuff, I would go to Wetherspoons because they're still cheap in it. And I paid £2.99 for a pint of Guinness in Tooting, London. So you can't go wrong for that, can you? As much as I dislike Tim Martin and Wetherspoons, you're not going to get a pint of Guinness for £3 anywhere else in London. Or anywhere else, anyway. They can deal with the devil. Exactly. Exactly right. OK, so you can find us on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcasts and the Sports Social Network. And if you like what we do, please subscribe, share and leave us a good review as it all helps to grow the podcast. Right, Gab, this week is a special pod. Why is it a special one? Because it's a victory pod. That's right, the Dragons won. Would you believe it? So it wasn't pretty or perfect by any means. Certainly wasn't, I would say. But the Dragons climbed off the bottom of the URC with a 20-13 win against Ziba Palmer in Newport on Good Friday. And it was a good Friday for the Dragons. So Dragons led 13-6 at the break after scoring a pair of tries through their defence. Really good pressure defence. Centre and Irenau intercepting and wing Jarrod Rosson racing over after a very good, strong count in racking, I should say, from Tate Basham, who had a very good game, I should say. And a foot cut, Elliot Deed, he guided a thriving line-out over the line early in the second half, but a close range to Ziba tried by prop Mohamed Hassan made it a needlessly nervy finish. Flying half, Bill Reeds was named play of the match by Sean Hurley on scum fight, which was slightly surprising because I thought he was going to go to Jarrod Rosson. The attendance after on the break on Friday night was 4,726. So there we are then, Gav. Dragons finally got that win they needed. Like I said, it wasn't pretty by any means. It was a dark fight. These baseball battles usually are. But what was your thoughts on what you saw on Friday night? So it was interesting for a number of points, really. So clearly you were there. I watched on TV. What was the atmosphere like? Because it sounded kind of bouncing on TV, sounded quite lively and particularly last 10 minutes. Yeah, it was pretty good, I have to say. Yeah, a lot of people like the games on the Friday night under the lights. You know, that is a popular sort of schedule, kick-off time for a lot of supporters. But yeah, it was pretty good. Like I said, four and a half thousand again, probably average crowd out for Dragons. So yeah, it was pretty good, I thought. It wasn't a pretty game, like you say, at all, was it? We lived on our nerves a little bit. Jarrod Rosson had a very good game. King had a good game. LAD had a very good game. But the player, because I criticised him, so I have to be positive, was Will Reid. Will Reid actually managed the game very well, I thought. And you know, it would be wrong to say, I wouldn't spend a season saying no, his game management was poor. One spring doesn't make a summer. But it was decent. It was decent performance by him. But you hit the nail on the head, I think. Defensively, it was our most astute performance. You're just really up in their faces, cutting down the space. Because we lived off their mistakes. We didn't create a lot. They were very optimistic tribes, weren't they? Yeah. Apart from Elliot, we managed the defence well. And that period in the second half, where we had those two penalties, so we're on our line, then we get a penalty, then we get another penalty, and then we're in there for the five metres. That was a defining moment of the game for me. Yeah, absolutely. I think this is a game where the result was more important than the performance. We knew we had to win this game, and we knew it was going to be pretty, because there never is between these two teams. And I don't know about you, Gav, but I actually thought the Dragons were better in defeat against the Bulls than they were in victory against Zipa. I actually thought the performance was better, but obviously you are coming up against a much better team. But we got that much-needed win against an improving Zipa. They had their Italian internationals back, so I was never fully confident of us winning this one. This was going to be a banana skin, but we got the job done, and that's the important thing about getting over the line, isn't it? That's what the Dragons have got to learn. We haven't done it all season, and it would have been very easy, particularly at the end, to capitulate. Yeah, and we've seen it so many times over the years, Gav, as well. That's why we're always very cautious when it comes to watching the Dragons. You can never fully relax watching the Dragons. They always say that we've been a Wales fan, but it's doubly so for us, because we've also had 20 years of it, or however long with the Dragons. Yep, true, true, true, true. You mentioned Will Reedy. I thought that was his best game this season. Now, like you, I've spoken about it on the podcast as well. I've had doubts about his game management and his decision making at times. We look back to that silly error against the Bulls. He's kicking the ball out from our fans, and little silly things like that. But I think he was really, really good in this game. He controlled the game well, and that's why I want to see more from him. He was really good. My man of the match, Bob, I played him. That would have gone to Chad Ross if I'd chosen. I thought he was outstanding. I thought that was the best game for the Dragons in a long time. So, a little bit of pace for that breakaway try, after a really good take. He was everywhere. He was absolutely everywhere. He was so hungry. He was looking for work. It was a really good performance by Jarrad. I thought he'd scored the pushover try. So, you know when they scored from the penalty earlier? Well, I thought Jarrad had scored it, because I saw him come out of the rack. But the camera panned on him, didn't it? That's why I think a lot of people thought he scored. But yeah, it was really good to see Jarrad having that game, because he is a very good player on his day. He's a really good finisher. So yeah, that would have been my play of the match, but I'm pleased for Wilby, because I think he needs more games like that. Tame Basham was really good again, Gav, I thought. I think since he's come back from Wales, from the Six Nations squad, I think he's really upped it. He looks like someone, as James said on the WRAP podcast, he's playing for a contract. Whether that'll be with us or someone else, I don't know. But he does look like he's got his mojo back again, which is really good to see. Luke Yendle at Tighthead, it was his first start of running three. I thought he did alright in the scrum. We are trying to get Luke on the pods, by the way. I did message him. So, hopefully, he needs the messages back. If you're listening, give us a message back, because I'd like to get you on the pods. The scrum creaked a bit, but it did what it needed to do. We got the ball up, didn't we, you know? Absolutely, yeah, we did. Great to see Dimitri hit, make his debut for the Dragons. The scrum looked solid when he came on, Gav, didn't it? It instantly looked solid when he came on. It didn't creak when he came on, no. No, it didn't. It showed right up. But that's all he does, isn't it? I don't think he moved more than about eight foot in the entire game. No, but he can scrummage, and that's definitely what we need at the Dragons. I found out on Friday night, he's actually been with us since November. He's been with the Dragons. He's been training with us and doing his rehab. We've had him since November. There's been a bit of a joke at the club, because they've been putting out videos and photos of him training and other stuff, and he's been in all these photos and videos, but nobody's noticed. So, we didn't notice his support. There's BBC, Wales Online, South Wales Argus. Nobody's picked up on the fact that we've had our hip with us since the end of the year. So, yeah, he's been with us for a little while. He must live in Cardiff, I assume. Probably, yeah. I think a lot of rugby players live in Cardiff, and they pump Cardiff and our sort of area, really. I've never been to Moldova, but I imagine Cardiff is slightly nicer than Sid's now. I would say so, yeah. That could be a very good pickup for us, our hip. He'll do a job, won't he, till the end of the season? He's not a young man, is he? He's 35, 36? He's 35, yeah. He's 35, but there's still plenty of life in him. Look at Brock at the Stormers. He's still going strong, isn't he, old Brock? Yeah, he's been one of the standard performers in the Stormers, it's ridiculous. He must be 40 if he's a day Brock Harris. I think he's 39, isn't he? He looked 40 when he first came to us. Oh yeah, he looks about 55, but he is about 39, I think. But no, I think there's a good couple of years left in our hip, and if he goes well, he probably will get a contract extension. Hopefully he stays injury free, that's the key. We need to see what he can do for us for the rest of the season. I don't want to be negative about it, because Dragons don't win as many games as we would like them to. I have to say, I am disappointed that after Elliott's try, we didn't kick on and put the game to bed. We didn't get our bonus point that we really needed. Yes, we got the win, but I would have liked to have seen us develop a killer instinct, which I think is lacking at the Dragons, and get that bonus point. I don't think we were on top enough, though, Jamie. Apart from Elliott's try, none of that came from a position of control, and we struggled with them defensively at times, even though he was much better defensive performance. I don't think we were ever in that much control where he was going to be a cakewalk. No, absolutely not. I just think I would have liked to have pushed on a little bit more. When Elliott gets that try, you're thinking, right, just one more try now, and we get that bonus point, and that would have been a brilliant result for us. But our discipline then let us down, didn't it? Because our discipline slipped at that point, and then we were living off scraps for a while, for about 20 minutes. Well, that's just what I was about to say, too. Then our discipline started to, unfortunately, go wayward, and we were making silly errors as well. That led Seabra into the game, and they came away with a losing bonus point, which I wasn't too happy with. It would have been better for us to deny them anything. We are in a scrap to avoid being bottom team in the URC, and us not getting a bonus point, and then picking one up. Now, that could be a difference come the end of the season. So I was just slightly disappointed that we didn't kick on and get that bonus point, and Seabra came away with something. Also, as well, our attack. I'm still not happy with our attack. No, you're far too flush. I've had issues about this all season. I think that I've found that a matter of why you really need to work together now to try and get us attack kicking, because far too often, it's an awful cliche, we've heard it a million times in rugby, but you hear that cliche, you've got to earn the right to go wide. The problem is, we chuck the ball about from side to side. We go wide very quickly off first phase now, but we're not making any hard yards. We don't get any go forwards. So what you do is you just end up going from side to side, but you're not really going anywhere. Several times we did that. You're not pulling defence around, and you're not making gaps, which is when the defenders have to move across more sharply, because we're not getting over the game line anywhere near as much as we should. That's why. So then when we try to move the ball back across the field, no-one's being sucked into a rack. No-one's having to loop round from a position where they're offside or whatever. There's no gaps, because our attack's toothless. And there are times where we look good in phases, and it looks pretty exciting, and we're throwing the ball about, it looks nice. But there's other times we're doing it without any go forward, and then it becomes a bit pointless then, because we're not getting out of our own path, and we're not making any hard yards going forward, and we're not getting any territory. There are times as well when we always try the miracle offload, and then someone spills it, and I think, well, no, that's not what's needed. Just go through some phases, track it up the middle, get some field position, and then maybe go from coast to coast. That's been a big frustration for me this season, is our attack. Yeah, it's a bit like the problems facing Welsh rugby, really. I don't know what the attack is yet. Until Friday, I didn't really know what the defensive strategy was, but we looked like, yeah, we had one on Friday. We're attacking, I don't know what the strategy is, other than, yeah, you try to be expansive. Expansive is only useful if there's gaps in defence. If we're trying to create broken fields, well, we aren't doing that. Yeah. You can see what they're trying to do, though, can't you? You can see what they're trying to do in the attack, but it's whether they've got the skill set for it, and also, as well, they've got, as I said earlier, they've got to make the hard yards, they've got to start tracking up and getting more field position, because going from coast to coast, side to side, without any go forward, it's just a pointless thing. But you might as well kick the ball. For me, I'd rather see him kick the ball and try to get... There was a couple of times on Friday when both Jared and Neil got the ball, but it was still. Yeah, I noticed that, yeah. You know, it's unbelievably pedestrian. Yeah, I agree. Because, you know, I teach under 10s not to stand still to catch a ball. We shouldn't be doing it, you know, shouldn't be seen at that level, though. No, quite right. On the positive, just picking up on what you said then, we know that we haven't got defence coach, and my God, we've spoken about this enough times. Defensively, very good. I was impressed by the defence, I thought it was gritty, I thought it showed a lot of character, we worked incredibly hard. Did it surprise you how good we were defensively? Yeah, it looked different, because it looked just quite aggressive. Not quite blitz, but it wasn't that aggressive, but it was like we were shutting down any space, we were meeting them in attack constantly, we were pressuring them, we were causing issues at the line-out as well, at the rack as well, which we've looked really lightweight at the rack at times this season. But, hey, you know, I've been critical of, was really solid at the rack, but everybody was giving it a go. And Sean Lonsdale as well, I thought putting that in a big shift. I know that's someone we are not entirely sold on, but I thought the easy printer would be up his sleeve. He's fine at second row, I just don't see him as a sixth, but he did what I would expect a second row to do a lot on Friday, which is that it racks hard. Hi Evans, our boy Kai, he struggled with the boot, didn't he? I thought those two missed conversions were quite poor by his standards. Yes, I did say a stinker like that, I thought, I hope those missed points don't come back to bite us on the backside, I was quite concerned about that, and I expected Kai to kick those, but they were very close, to be honest, but not his best game. Also, Aaron Wainwright had a very quiet game by his high standards, I thought. Now, he has had a pretty draining Six Nations, so maybe that's why, you know, maybe you can do now a couple of weeks best, which you'll get, of course, because we're not in Europe, but it was an unusually quiet performance. It didn't carry with any kind of intensity, I thought, you know. Yeah, no, I agree. Okay, so Dragons have won, but like we said, it wasn't a great game, it was low on quality, but this was all about the result, and we got the result that we needed, and for now, we are off the bottom of the table. So, it's good, Gav, isn't it? You know, it's all about winning, and we did that, and any final thoughts before we move on? Well, it probably sounds like I'm being critical. I'm not critical, because I was super pleased, I was overjoyed to see us win, and I was overjoyed to see some of that kind of grittiness, but we've got to maintain it now. The next game, the defence has to look like that. Yeah, and next game is away at Benetton, which is going to be very difficult. It's a tough game. Yeah, they're doing very well, I'm making no assumptions there. You know, of the games we've got left now, Connacht, Scarlets, they're the games to beat. Well, I've got to hold your fire about that, because I've got a question to ask you. Well, one of our listeners has sent us a question, so I'll get your thoughts on them running just a bit later on. Right, okay then, so that's that done then, as you said. Victory pass, Dragons win, great stuff. Now, it's time for this week's GWENT Rugby Roundup. So, what's been the latest thing, Gav, what's happening? Well, it was a good weekend for both of us, really, because clearly the Dragons won, but our respective Premiership sides won as well. Newport beat Llandudferry 24-6, which is a fantastic result put on top of their Premiership. Yeah, good game that was. Did you watch it? It was on S4C, it was really good. I did, yes. No, it was excellent. Reinhard Landman, former Dragon, who, of course, friend of the pot, he had to play with a match. He was really good. Oh, God, I bet he's hard work to start. Jesus, just watching him. I saw him Friday nights down at Brony Parade, and he's still a unit. He still wants it. You could see that, he was on the pod, his arms were filling my face. Yes. The other thing I want to say, just before you move on, sorry, Shea Hope, Dragon scrub off, was excellent, and he's belted up as well. Yes, I thought he looked really sharp, and I liked him just sniping around rucks and this. You know, that's Landeverly, it's decent, you know, lots of good players. Yeah, it was a good game. Did you notice, though, the first half, they absolutely destroyed the Newport Scrum. You're thinking, uh-oh. The second half, it was the complete opposite. They made some front row changes, and then it was them who was dominated. But Landeverly won, what was it, 12, 13 games in a row, something like that? They've had a fantastic run. They're a very good team, so it's a brilliant win for Newport. Last team they lost was Ebbervale. They lost to Ebbervale in October, I think. That's the last time they've lost. So that's a fantastic win. And then Ebbervale won 24-17, away to Swansea. Good win. So Newport are top, uh, Landeverly second. Newport, Landeverly and Ebbervale are all assured play-off places. Brilliant. Pondypool didn't play this weekend, but Pondypool are in fifth. It's been a good season, hasn't it, for the playing clubs and the... They've done very well. You know, my fear is we'll do whatever we call it, the elite competition or whatever it's called. What's that going to look like? And what's, you know, how is that going to help our regions? But that's another chat for another time. So in the Championship East, Bedouin lost 24-33 at home to Crosskeys and Penalta lost 22-37 at home to Newbridge. In the Division One, Blaenavon beat Risker 48-30. I don't know if you've ever played at Blaenavon. That's another noisy place to play. It's cold and windy. Yeah. And if you said, oh, I'm playing a summer tournament in August, it's still cold and windy. It's what it's always like. Incredibly outplayed score. Monmouth, good win for them. They beat Delos 31-26 at home. And your former side, NSD, beat Abergavenny 53-20. Good win for them. Abergavenny's are not having a good season. In the Division Two East, Newport High School Old Boys beat Troisi Kiliog 47-19. And Oakdale beat Killian 34-12. In the Division Threes, a tightly fought game in another very difficult place to go and play. Nandy Glow lost 22-23 at home against Abertawsog. Another cold and windy place all year round. Division Four East, Blackwood Stars beat Whitehead 21-15. Gwynnyfed beat Bedwellty 36-12. Haverdynes lost 17-34 at home to Crickhowell. New Panteg lost 26-27 at home to Betws. And St Julian's High School Old Boys lost 21-26 at home to New Tredegar. And then in the Division Five East, West Mon lost 7-53 at home to Holybush, Eastern Valleys Classe. And in Division Six East, Trenant lost 15-0 at home to Tredegar Ironsides. So not lots of rugby, but lots of away wins. Clearly the home teams were all Easter drinking and ready. Great stuff. Okay, thank you for that Gav. Let's move on now to a bit of news. So all this week, Dragons are announcing next-gen signings. So these are young players who are signing new contracts with the club. And the first one that's been announced is young centre Joe Westwood. So he signed a three-year senior contract with the Dragons. The 22-year-old, who can also play in a back three, made his debut for the Dragons off the bench against the Sharks in January. And then he made a first start against Ulster in Belfast. I really like the look of this guy, Gav. He looks quite a player. And he's a big lad as well, isn't he? He is. He's a big lad, but he doesn't look like a centre when you first see him. It's the plan. Have they suggested that this is going to be regular first-team rugby, or is he still going to play at Newport or one of the other feeder clubs? I think it'll be a mixture of the two. I think he'll get a lot more game time for the Dragons next season, but I could still see him playing rugby for Newport. And I think that's a good way to... He just needs to be playing rugby, whether it's for the Dragons or even for Newport in a premiership. There's no point having these tardy kids not playing rugby, just sitting around, if not selected. So if he's not in the Dragons squad, get him playing for Newport. I think that's what we should be doing anyway. It's, you know, whoever's not in the 23, they should be playing premiership rugby on the weekends. Yeah, absolutely. So this is what Dai Flanagan said. It's great news that Joe has signed a long-term deal with us, as we firmly see him as a future 13-pro club. He's a big man and a great athlete, built to be a modern-day rugby player. And he has a fantastic skill set from his time playing in multiple positions in junior rugby. Joe is an exciting prospect for this club, and we look forward to seeing how he develops and pushes on in the coming season. So he's a big part of the Dragons' plans going forward, and I do think we'll see a lot more of him. But he's already had a big game time, hasn't he? He's come back into the fold. He's had bad luck with injury as well, Joe Westwood. He spent a couple of seasons out, but they do think a lot of him at the Dragons. A line-breaking 15 is what we need. It's like Mason Grady type of character. Yeah, and big man. We haven't got many of those in Wales either. He is a big guy. So yeah, pretty good news. So there will be another announcement later today, but as we're recording this, we won't get to know who that is. But all this week, they'll be announcing new re-signings of the young talent, which is pretty good marketing too, actually. It's good PR, isn't it? Showing the club that we're building for the future. You're re-signing your exciting young talent, and we've got to keep hold of young talent. Yes, it's important that we sign quality players who are going to help to push the Dragons on, but you've got to keep hold of your best quality young players. We don't want them going to England and elsewhere. No, we want to try and keep them out of the English game, don't we? No offence to the English game, but... No, but we've lost too much talent, haven't we, to England? So we need to keep hold of our young talent in Wales. So yeah, promising news, really good stuff. In other news then, David Buttress has been named CEO of OVO Energy. Are you an OVO Energy customer, Gaz? I am not. I am not. Oh, right, okay. I am an OVO Energy customer. I might be. I don't know my wife. My wife deals with that side of the bill. Yeah, so OVO has 4 million energy customers in the UK, placing a burden on the market behind British Gas and Octopus Energy. So I'm just wondering, if I see Buttress next, are we going to get a discount for Dragon season ticket holders? If I'm an OVO Energy customer now, can I have a discount off my energy bills? Because they are going up at a rate of knots, so... I'm going to suggest probably not. No, probably not, no. Okay, really, that's not good for him, though, you know, like a man who knows his way, and he certainly knows his way around the world of business, doesn't he? Yeah, but how does he get time to do all these roles, Gaz? Because he's got his venture business in the 83 North, and he's got the Dragons, and you know, he's got his fingers in so many places. I just wonder how these businessmen, these high-flying businessmen find time to do and run all these businesses, you know? A mate of mine, who I run my rugby club with, is a managing director of an IT company. And if he goes into work twice a week, it's miraculous, so I don't know, you know? No, but fair play to him. Congratulations to him, you should say, as well. Absolutely. And, you know, he's been a big advocate of the pod as well, you know, he's... He has. He absolutely has. He's offered to come back on as well, to somebody who got in touch with us. We'll come on to it now on Mailbox, but he was asking questions, and I replied saying, that needs to be answered by David Fletcher, it's not us. David saw that, and he said he's happy to come back on and answer more questions. And it's great to have, isn't it, you know, a chairman of the Dragons who's so passionate and willing to engage with us. He doesn't have to, and I think it's good. No, absolutely, he doesn't need to do this at all, but I think, you know, it's good that not only from him, but from the club as a whole, we've had recognition of what we're doing, because, you know, it's very much an amateur affair, but it's good that the club's kind of buying into it, too. And, excuse me, we've been quoted in Wales Online as well. We have. We're kind of a big deal now, this pod is growing. Wales Online quoted us. Didn't they make me laugh when I saw that? Well, they were quoting Jamie Ringer, they were, but. Yes. Also, while we're at it, we need to clarify something here, when you said about the language. So, a couple of people did get in touch with me to say that Wales averaged four languages per game for the whole tournament. So, you've got to ask that just a little bit incorrect, but I mean, it's still not great, don't get me wrong, but it was four languages per game, not for the tournament. No, not enough. No, no, not at all. But just to clarify that, yeah, correction. But I was wrong by 500%, so I will accept that. That's all the news they have from a Dragons point of view. Now, let's look what's inside our mailbox. So, we asked our lovely listeners for their comments, thoughts, and questions. Now, we've had a couple of questions regarding the coaching setup. So, Ellis Parry gets in touch and he says, it'd be great for you guys to discuss the coaching situation. Gareth Lapierre also asked, what changes do we expect from the backroom staff? Whilst we are in need of a defence coach, our attack has gone backwards this season, in my opinion. Yes, quite right, as we've talked about. So, what do we know about the coaching setup? Well, we know that there's going to be a refresh. We know we're going to get a defensive coach. We don't know who yet. I haven't seen or heard any names mentioned in terms of a new defence coach. So, we don't know who at the moment, but we know we are having a defence coach. We know that Luke Narroway is going to be leaving the Dragons. We know that Meffyn Davies is going to be leaving. So, there's two forward coaches there that's going to be leaving. We know that Dan Bow, the head of performance, or the waterboy, whatever you prefer to call him, he's going to Georgia. So, he's going to join the Georgian national team as part of their coaching setup. So, it looks like we are going to have a refresh of the coaching. And to be honest with you, as we've talked about a few times this season, it's much needed. I think we need fresh voices now and new blood in our coaching team. So, Meffyn was Seppi's coach, wasn't he? So, Meffyn concentrated on scrums and Luke Narroway concentrated on the line-ups. So, we had two forward coaches, but Meffyn was concentrating on scrums as Seppi and Narroway was focusing on the line-ups. Yeah, both needs an overhaul anyway. I don't know about the attack. I don't know if they're going to persist with Matt O'Brien. Like I said, I'm really not happy with our attack at the moment. I know that he's kind of a young coach, isn't he? And he's combining that role with playing for Newport RFC. But it remains to be seen whether or not we have an attack. I don't see how you can do it. I don't see... He does though. He absolutely does. Oh no, I know he does, but we're a professional club. We need a professional setup. It doesn't feel professional. I agree. I do agree with that. But it's the money issue, isn't it? Of course. Yeah. But yes, we can expect changes. But like I said, there's no names as of yet in terms of who's coming into the coaching setup, but we know who's going. So, yeah, that's when we're going to have to... We should start some ridiculous rumours. Yeah. We saw Sean Edwards in Hypervalue. I don't think Hypervalue is still there, Sean Edwards was in Fire's Walk, having a coffee with David Buttress. That would be a fine thing, wouldn't it? He very nearly became our head coach, Sean Edwards. Remember that, when he was linked to being our interim head coach? I often think about that. Would he have ever worked? I don't know. I mean, our defence would have been very good. He came in at Cardiff as a consultant as well, didn't he? To help out with the defence. They did alright. They won in the Challenge Cup. What could have been? What could have been? Okay. So, Matt Williams, he's asking, do you guys think we will catch the Scarlets or will we finish bottom Welsh region again? Now, let's talk about the running, because you mentioned earlier, right? I'll read to you the run-ins of each team, and I want you to tell me who you think got the toughest run-in and if we can finish for the Scarlets, right? So, our next four games are this. Benton away. Connacht at home. Stormers at home. Ospreys away. Scarlets away at Judgment Day. Right? That's the Dragons' run-in. Now, let's have a look at the Scarlets' run-in. They got Edinburgh away. They got Sharks at home. They've got Ulster at home. Zebra away. And then they got the Dragons. So, who has got, in your opinion, the toughest run-in out of those two clubs? Scarlets. You think the Scarlets? Yeah. Do you think we'll finish above the Scarlets? No. No. I think we'll beat them. Yeah. The thing is, there's three winnable games there for me. So, who's winnable then, out of those games that I've mentioned to you from the Dragons? Connacht at home. Yeah, I'd agree with that. Ospreys away. Not super winnable, but it's not a million miles. You know, we can beat Ospreys on our day. Maybe not the way they're playing at the minute. And Scarlets. We aren't beating Stormers unless they decide to send their force. And even then, we'll struggle. And we aren't beating Benetton away. So, Scarlets, they aren't beating Edinburgh away. Again, Sharks. It really depends on what happens, of what Sharks' team turns up. Yeah. And, you know, Zebra away. We know that's a tough game. And Scarlets have looked worse than us. They've got a better squad than us on paper, but they've looked worse as a team. Yeah. I did sympathise with them getting hammered by Glasgow, because us Dragons supporters know what that's like. We've had some real pastings from Glasgow. You know, you think back to 60 points to three back in 2012 or 2030, whatever it was, obviously. That 70-plus point defeat in Europe last season. They're a bloody good team, Glasgow, and they are both blessed. They will cut you to shreds if you allow it. And they were very faithful. Scarlets faithful. Oh, yeah, exactly. Cardiff looked very good, though, I thought. Yeah. You've got to take your hand off to them, because they're not winning games. Two losses, but they did well. Yeah. They're not winning games. They've only won three games. So I should point out that the Dragons have won more games than Cardiff in all competitions this season. They've won three in the league and one in Europe. I know the caveat is, you know, Cardiff fans say, well, we played in the Champions Cup, fine, but the stats are that we've won more games than Cardiff. But they're competitive. And what I admire about them, which is what we don't do enough, and they bang on about this a lot on both podcasts, on here and on that, they pick up losing bonus points. So if it's games where you know you're going to struggle to win, you've got to come away with something. And we don't do that enough. We don't pick up enough losing bonus points, and that's why they want us to do a lot more, where we go and play those bigger, better teams. But we've got to be more competitive, because we don't look at the races when we play a Munster, a Glasgow, a Bulls. You know, we don't look like we're at the races against those teams. Or Lions, whoever. Yeah. So you're saying that we won't finish above the Scarlets, and you think we'll finish bottom of this region, is it? To be honest with you, is that what you're thinking? I do, yeah. I would agree. How many points are they ahead of us? Only one. Maybe, maybe. It really depends on what Sharks team turns up. Yeah. So the bottom four of the table is quite interesting now. So in last 16th, you've got Seabird. They're on 15 points. Then it's us in 15th. We got 15 points. Scarlets are in 14th. They have 16 points. The Sharks have leapt up now. They're in 13th position, and they're on 18 points. I mean, I've been saying for a little while that sooner or later the Sharks are going to start winning games and climb up the table. That was always going to happen. There's too much quality in our team for them not to start winning games. But it's quite an interesting battle, isn't it? Down in the bottom, the basement battle, as they call it. So it's basically possible we can overtake the Scarlets. Will they win another game this season? I think that's the question, isn't it? As bad as the Scarlets are, and we're struggling, will they win another game this season? I probably think they will, but... But you could argue there's a case that both teams could win one or more, or both teams could lose all of them bar against each other. It could come down to judgment day. That would be quite interesting, wouldn't it? That'd be good from the commercial end. Who finishes bottom? If it's a shootout between Scarlets and Dragons, I think that would generate a little bit of interest. Because the Ospreys will get the Welsh Shield, won't they? Oh, yes. The vitally important Welsh Shield. I'd love us to win the Welsh Shield. The hubcap is known as. The hubcap is stickers. I would kill for the Dragons to win that, honestly. It's something, isn't it? It's not the trophy, but it's something. Yeah, okay. Thank you for that, Matt. Stephen Thompson, he gets in touch, and he asks, is Tain back from staying? Well, Stephen, the answer is, I don't know. How long's the piece of string? I honestly don't know. I hope so, because I think Tain has been very good, as I said, since he's come back from the Wales squad. He looks hungry again. He looks like he's got his mojo back. His counter-rucking was really good on the weekend. That's an area of his game that he does need to improve on. We know he's a good ball carrier, but he's got to do the dirty work as well. I'd really like Tain to stay. I don't see why he'd want to be going to the Scarlets, if I'm being honest, because they're in all sorts of trouble off the field. They've recently announced a restructure, and all they've done is just move people sideways. They haven't really taken accountability. There's a lot of talk about John Daniels moving on. A lot of fans aren't happy with John Daniels. They want him gone from the club. They've just moved him sideways to another position. So, there's all sorts of problems there. We know the Saracens are interested in Tain. That's understandable, if he did leave to go to the Saracens. I think most people would say, well, fair enough, because the Saracens are a very big club. They've got a rich history. The Gallagher premiership is a good league, and it'd be a new, fresh challenge for him. He'd be playing Champions Cup rugby. I get that. I don't really understand why he'd want to move to the Scarlets, as I said, but I hope he stays. I don't know about you, Gav. Would you like to see him stay? Yeah, I didn't at the start of the season, because I thought he wasn't pulling his weight. But since the Six Nations, he seems to be actually doing what he wanted back row forward to be doing. So, I'd be happy if he stayed, although, you know, without sounding one-eyed and provincial, why would he go to Scarlets at the minute? They're in a worse position than us. I think off the field, we're in a much better position. Yeah, you can argue they are a better team. They're not too far behind. Yes, they are. But like I said, I talked to Lee from RAP and New Year's stuff. I don't think it's a very well-run club at the moment. The fans are furious. They're not happy with what's going on. There are certain people at the board that aren't taking responsibility. So, yeah, they've got issues at Scarlets. I'd be surprised and a bit disappointed if he went there, but it's his choice at the end of the day. There are negotiations between Tain and the club at the moment. So, fingers crossed, I would like him to stay and I guess we'll just wait and see. But if he's staying, who knows? Richard Dixon gets in touch. He's asking, who's out of contract at the end of the season? Will Jordan Williams, Theo Tompkinson, Leo Brown and Bradley Roberts still be here? And then he asks, do we need them? So, I think out of those, I would have liked to have kept Theo, I'll be honest, because I still don't really think he's the best of them. He's been unlucky with injury and he is quite a physical player. I like Theo a lot, but he is going to be leaving, I would imagine. Jordan Williams, I think, should leave, if I'm being brutally honest. I think Jordan was a great player for us for the first couple of years, but I think his time is up now. Leo Brown, I think, is probably for the best if he moved on. Bradley Roberts, again, I'd love to keep Bradley. We're big fans, we're on the pod. I don't know if he'd be with us. That's too big of a budget. We're going to accept it, but that's a big thing. So, do we need them? I mean, it would be nice to keep Theo and Bradley, but what do you think out of those? I totally agree with you on what you've said. I think Leon, what does he bring? He plays four games a year, broke and the rest. We're playing for Wales. I don't know what he brings a lot. I'm sure he can make money in England, let him do that. I don't think we need to worry about him. Yeah, Jordan is fine. We've got plenty of players who can do that job better. Theo brings a bit of physicality in the centres, which we lack. We could see him for another season. Bradley is a good option. He's a good national player. He's not as good as Elliot, but he's certainly the next best cab off the rank. As much as we like Jimbo, he's not in the same place as Bradley. I don't think so. I don't forget we've got young Brodie Coughlin pushing through as well. I like him quite a lot. He's got a lot of potential. Yeah, he looks decent as well, but Bradley is a better player than both those currently. We're going to see a few names leave the Dragons, I think. Some high profile players. I understand Sean Lonsdale is probably going to leave as well. Bertranew is going to leave. Max Clarke is likely to leave. I'm fine with that. We talked about Max Clarke before. I don't think he made the impact I wanted him to have. He's played okay for Cardiff when he has played, but he's injured again now. I figured he'd go westwards and not even know it. Harry Ackerman coming through now, you've got to weigh it up. There's going to be some big name departures, and there might be one or two players who we don't want to see leave the Dragons. Sean Lonsdale will end up in the English Championship, I imagine. You think so? Yeah. I think we will be in the market for a back-rower, though. I think we will look for a back-rower slash lock hybrid. He's from the North West, isn't he, Sean Lonsdale? He's North Walian, but I think his heritage is North West England. I was thinking about this. If we're going to look for a back-rower, because we talked about this in our chat on that. Harley said about Will Boyd would be a good pick-up for the Dragons, a good signing. I said, yeah, but I tell you, do I think it'd be good for someone like Seamus Hughes from Cardiff? I'd be looking at him because he's a really good back-rower. He can play lock if we need it. I think that would be the kind of player the Dragons need to look at. If we're losing Kane as well, we are going to need a back-rower. We don't know what's happening with Harley. I'm not sure what his contract state is. I'd be looking at someone like Seamus Hughes. Yeah, that'd be a good signing. Someone like that. That's where we are with the contract stuff. Let's have a look at Twitter then. Ulfstar126594, that's a catchy new thing, isn't it? He's asking, what's the position with Gonzalo Bertranou? Is he out injured for the rest of the season? Bertranou is currently out injured with a wrist injury. Is he going to be out for the rest of the season? I don't know, but that's where he is at the moment. He injured his wrist in training, and I understand, and yeah, he's injured. We've barely seen the guy. I like Bertranou, but we've barely seen him. Someone like that two or three times maybe, so I don't know if you'll see him again. I'd like him to get one more game in before he goes, because I think he's been a good player for us, but with a World Cup, like I said, this season, we've barely seen the guy. Shame, really. Then Richard Jones gets in touch, and he says, if the Dragons could afford him, and he wanted to come back to Wales, then Rhys Patra would be an excellent signing, and would be superb in helping Will redevelop. There was talk of him joining before he went to Super Rugby, so you never know. Rhys Patra. Now, from what I understand, the Dragons are still trying with Rhys Patra. There have been conversations. They're not giving up on him, so maybe watch this space, I would say, but how would you feel about Rhys Patra? I like Patra. I've always liked Patra as a player. But is he enough of a risky signing, given his entry record? Are these the kind of players we need to steer clear of, the ones with really bad entry records? Or do you think he's worth picking up, that he's worth taking off? Well, he would massively improve our options of 10, wouldn't he? He is a good player, no matter what. Are you looking at it? He is a good player. Injuries and, yeah, just wrong place, wrong time has kept him up to the Wales team a bit. I know you're a bigger fan of Sam Davies than me, but he is several cuts above Sam Davies. I like Sam Davies. He got lost from Dragon supporters. I think he was what we needed at the time. I'm a big fan of him. And he is going well in the Pro D2. I know you might say, well, it's only Pro D2, but it's a competitive thing. He looks a completely different player out there, doesn't it? But it does help having a strong pack in front of your mind, doesn't it? When you've got a strong pack in front of you, as a flyer, you're given a free ride, a bit more freedom, and you never really had that. He was never behind the strong pack of the Dragons, so there is that element. No, he's got a bit more of an arms here, right, doesn't he? But I think that would be a good signing. But like you say, would he want to come here? I know we've been in conversation with him. Is he at the Blues? No, he's not at the Blues. He's at the Highlanders. Highlanders, yeah. I'm not sure I'd want to leave New Zealand to live in Newport. You wouldn't have to live in Newport, you'd probably move back to Cardiff, I'm guessing. Oh, that's true, yeah. That would make a bit of sense. Yeah, but I know they have been trying these patches, so like I said, watch this space. I'll tell you a funny story when I got told on Friday night by somebody at the Dragons. So we were in negotiations not long ago with Carl Fanscombe. He was all going very well, apparently. He was looking good. And then he turned around and said, no, I'm not going to join. He pulled out of the move. And he told them that he wanted to leave Welsh Rugby and go further afield. And then he signed for Gloucester. Which is just like half a 40 minutes away. It is further afield. Yeah, but they thought he meant sort of, you know, playing in Super Rugby Japan. And then he said, he turned around, he's now supposed to move to Gloucester. So, yeah, he could have been a Dragon. He could have been a Dragon. Yeah, they did talk, they were contract negotiations. He'd have been a great player. If he was fit. That's the other thing. There's so many players in Welsh Rugby who are really talented, but never fit, isn't there? And we need to stay away from those now, I think, as a club. We've given far too many chances to injured players. And we just need someone who's durable and robust to play week in, week out, don't we? Tell you who I really like for fine, but he's super injury prone and he'll never come to us, Ellis Jenkins. Oh, I know. Yeah. That would be another good signing, wouldn't it? That's what I mean. I thought of Ellis Jenkins, Shane Lewis. I would take a Cardiff back bowler. I really would. Thomas Young would be brilliant. Can you imagine Thomas Young at the time? Yeah, he'd do a great job for us. Yeah, they've got really good back bowlers. And, you know, Newport's nicer than Cardiff, as we know, so, you know. Of course it is. And they've got McCann's, they've got the pub and the marriage there. So, what more do you want, I guess? Absolutely. What more do you want? Yeah. That is it then. There's no more letters in the mailbox. And I think that's it for this week, Gavin. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about? No, I think that's covered everything. Yeah. So, it's a shorter one than usual this week. We are hoping to get a guest on when we return. We are playing Benetton, so I'd like to try and get someone to talk about Benetton, to come on the pod and have a chat about them, you know, what's made them so successful and their progression, really, because they are an interesting team, Benetton, now, aren't they? You know, when you think about a few years ago, you know, they were a bit of a laughing stock, they didn't win a game. And now, all of a sudden, they're one of the best teams in the URC. They've invested heavily and it's going to be a very difficult game for the Dragons, that one. So, yeah, I'll try and get in contact with one of the Italian podcasts, I think, and get someone to have a chat about Benetton. But until then, that's it then. Until then, we shall speak again and we'll be back with the Benetton preview. Gal, thank you, as always, for joining me. Until next time, take care. Thank you for listening to the Dragon's Lair podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. 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