The press and the Dragons

Andy Howell of the worst paper in the world has been having a snipe at the Dragons again. According to Andy Dragons fans are
Already unhappy at the failure of the board of the Rodney Parade outfit to hold serious talks with an alleged consortium, fronted by former WRU chief executive Steve Lewis...
In the best traditions of the Western Mail (a paper that doesn't believe in wasting its money on journalism) Andy appears to have got his story here. All Andy appears to have added is the description of Steve Lewis's group as an 'alleged' consortium. It's a curious tale that Dragons fans have agonised over for months, trying to work out whether there was any serious intent on Lewis's part to bring some money to the table. Since Lewis never did make a financial offer or a statement of intent we'll never know.
Back in May, when this story first started to run a chap called Andrew Lambert popped up and acted as spokesperson for the consortium. He told the BBC

"The key aim is to develop rugby in the area.

"The people involved, certainly from a rugby spectator's point of view, have got the right motives.

"We're well on with our discussions but it is a complicated issue and a matter that we must get right.

"The goal is to improve the situation, both on the pitch and in terms of the facilities."

Along the way Andrew vanished, and the ubiquitous Steve Lewis came to the fore. Lewis has been an articulate critic of the current Dragons board, keen to promote his own commercial interest in the Dragons, even if it means undermining the current side in the process. Along the way he has had an unwitting (if one is being generous) ally in Dragons coach Paul Turner. Here's Paul talking about the Dragons squad in close season.

"We've got to look for some investment to try to bring the right sort of players here.

These kinds have well done this season in the Challenge Cup, but Heineken Cup is a totally different kettle of fish.

Having lost Ian Gough, Gareth Cooper and the two Brew boys [Nathan and Aled], we need to dip into the market."

I'm all for a touch of realism, but telling your squad they're not good enough is probably taking it a bit far. Paul has a curious relationship with his club via the press. For over a year he's been criticising the board of the club for not doing what he tells them. It's an interesting way to do one's job, and smacks of excuse making; anything good that happens on the pitch is Turner's doing, and anything bad is the board's fault. He's found a willing ally in Robin Davey of the South Wales Argus, a journalist so thin skinned and popularly derided he's taken to answering his critics back through his columns. Here's Robin talking in his column about the demise of the 'alleged' consortium (one day Andy Howell will explain to me how you can be an alleged consortium).
Without in any way being smug, I can't help but feel that constant pressure from these columns has at least forced the Dragons board to act in some way. But the website brigade who accused me of shying away from the Rodney Parade revelations last week because of the risk of egg on face over the consortium collapse' when, in fact, I was on holiday in the south of France will convince themselves otherwise.

Robin enjoys a strong relationship with Paul Turner; once the Dragons coach started his bandwagon about the Dragons needing new facilities Robin was on board and pursuing his cause with a fervour he never brings to his rugby reports. The perfect example of this came in 2006, when Ben Breeze wrote an article in the match programme calling for more investment in facilities, and was praised for his vision in an Argus article written by Davey and quoting Paul Turner.

How long the Dragons baod should tolerate this open rebellion by an employee is for them to judge, but it does seem odd to me that Turner is allowed to criticise the club and its directors openly and freely, yet suffers no sanction. The lack of a Chief Executive at Rodney Parade is undoubtedly an issue, but you have to ask if it isn;t time for Paul to shut up about the ground and the finances, and stick to what he's supposed to do which is coaching the rugby side.

Llanelli Scarlets 23 Newport Gwent Dragons 30

An unbiassed observer might comment that Llanelli will hope not to play worse than this all eason, but the Dragons might fear they won't play any better.
The Scarlets handed the Dragons a twenty point advantage in as many minutes, betraying a rustiness that suggests their pre-season hasn't gone well. The Dragons, on the other hand, were belying the pre-match comments of their coach who was less Tina Turner than Morrissey in his outlook. Turner has been quick to complain that he hasn't been given the money to spend that other Welsh coaches have enjoyed. Against a ragged and ineffectual Scarlets pack in the first half of this game any spending by the Scarlets appeared to have been wasted.
The wheels came off for the Scarlets from the first kick off. Richard Mustoe cut the Scarlets defence to pieces by the simple tactic of running to where the ball was going to land, and catching it when it arrived. Add in some poor quality tackling from the Scarlets defence and Rhys Thomas was over for an astonishing try. Add in the conversion and a penalty for from Aled Thomas and a 10-0 lead looked faintly unbelievable. Just as the Scarlets started to claw their way back into the game a Gareth Wyatt interception took the score out to 17-0, before another conversion and subsequent penalty by Thomas took the score to a frankly surreal 20-3 by half time.

More sober Dragons fans than your correspondent will have noted, despite the score, that the Dragons weren't entirely convincing value for their lead. Despite a clever kicking game from Thomas and Andy Williams, the forwards struggled to assert themselves over a Llanelli 8 who made best use of all the latitude allowed them by the referee. On defence the Dragons' best friend was the ineptitude of a Llanelli back line whose error rate was implausibly high, allied to a Llanelli game plan that eschewed forward effort for an over dependence on midfield moves that simply ran headlong into the packed but narrow Dragons defence.

The doubts of those more sober Dragons fans were made concrete at the start of the second half, as the Scarlets set aside their first half reticence and tried to grab the game by the scruff of its neck. Judging by the way in which the referee's decisions started to routinely go against the Dragons it was hard not to wonder if it was just the Scarlets players who had received a blistering pep talk from Phil Davies at half time.

Tries from Garan Evans and Iestyn Thomas, who had transformed the Scarlets front row, ensued as Llanelli raised the tempo of their game and used the ball and field position that the Dragons' naive approach to discipline afforded them. The naivety and foolhardiness of the Dragons was epitomized when Aled Thomas was sinbinned for an attempted foul that achieved nothing except to capture the attention of a ref who was increasingly disenchanted with the Dragons approach to the game. Add in the three points for the penalty awarded to compensate Llanelli for Aled Thomas not being able to kick one of their players and it looked as if once again Turner's Dragons were to have their fire extinguished late in the game.

Not this time. Another opportunistic Dragons attack set up a stunning field position from which Andy Williams managed to worm his way over the line to the satisfaction of the TMO, if not the Llanelli players and supporters.

Despite the Dragons best efforts to concede field position and ball the Scarlets failed to close the gap sufficiently before the final whistle - the bad tempered fist fight on the touchline just before the final whistle spoke volumes about the frustration of a Llanelli side who couldn't believe the extent of their own inadequacies.

For the Dragons there was much to be hopeful about, and much to fear. In the spine of the team Steve Jones looked close to back to his abrasive best, even if he was ultimately substituted to reduce the penalty count against him, but Fitisemanu was subdued in manner and tentative in his handling. Luke Charteris has played better than he did today, and will hopefully captain more assertively in future. By way of compensation Richard Parkes looked comfortable at this level, and capable of raising his game when he has to compete for a place in the back row with the peerless Colin Charvis.

Behind the scrum Andy Williams was a competent game manager and a brave general, sure in his choices about when he had to lead from the front. He'll need many more such performances while he is playing inside a juvenile midfield of Thomas, Smith and Dolman. All three showed glimpses of their promise, but all three made errors of judgement that would have been more costly against sides less ill-equipped to take advantage of them than this Scarlets side.

And yet, tonight, it's the Dragons who will take most comfort from the Magners League table. In a season where away wins are all too scarce, this one will be treasured by Dragons fans for reasons that are pragmatic as well as sectarian.