Dragons coaching team expect to make personnel changes to the team for Friday's European Challenge Cup meeting with Timisoara Saracens at Rodney Parade (kick off 7.30pm).
Martyn Bicknell | 06/01/2019
A 22-13 Guinness PRO14 defeat to the Scarlets ended a block of intense Welsh derbies, with the Dragons not quite able to replicate their performances against Cardiff Blues or Ospreys but still showed steely determination.
Short of their front line prop stars the Dragons problems against an all-Wales front row at Parc y Scarlets denied the visitors the chance to upset the odds against the Scarlets yesterday.
"It was always going to be tough and in territory and possession we were down to the 30s percentage wise in both – they dominated the game so looking at our defence, the energy and effort was top drawer," said Barry Maddocks.
“It’s been a good month to be fair. The defensive effort over the last few weeks has been massive, and it’s probably taken a bit out of the legs especially when you consider we played most of the match against the Blues with fourteen men so there’s been a huge effort from each and every member of staff behind the scenes and the boys themselves have fronted up fantastically well.
“We went to Clermont and performed well, then against the Blues, the win against the Ospreys and just not quite there against Scarlets.
“In the first half, the Scarlets had the stranglehold on the line out and at scrum side of things.
“If you look at the front row, the injuries we’ve got there even from the start of the week, it meant we couldn’t get the platform we needed. When we did have the ball, we played some good stuff.
“Aaron Jarvis suffered a hamstring injury early doors unfortunately. He’s an experienced guy for us so going from there we were struggling against their strong front row and we were down to our third-fourth choice.
“The boys did well, especially a young guy in someone like Christian Coleman who came on and admirably put himself right in there. As a young kid it’s good for the future of the Dragons.
The three derby fixtures followed fixtures against European heavyweights ASM-Clermont Auvergne and Northampton Saints, so the visit of Saracens of Romania provides an opportunity for new combinations to be tested and returning players to put their hand up for selection.
“Timisoara gives us a chance to freshen things up and for the guys to have a rest and to bring players in. You saw the impact Jordan Williams made when he came on, so we will be looking to put him into the team over the next couple of weeks to get him back in form.
“We will look to give a couple of the backs that started this evening another start to give them some more game time.
“Up-front people like Aaron Wainwright who has been outstanding in the last month and a couple of others, will need to take a breather so it’s important we rotate a couple of positions for sure.”
Maddocks confirmed Ceri Jones and himself as senior coaches will continue to lead the coaching team as the Dragons prepare for the final rounds of the European group stage.
“Myself and Ceri will continue to lead the coaching team as we prepare for Timisoara, as there’s no other news at the moment. Ian Evans does the forwards and James Chapron has moved up from the Academy to help out with the Defence. We’ve been told to just continue until any news comes through from those who make the decisions.
“It’s been great over the last few weeks, the boys have really put a big shift in and we can see with the try at the end when we play with ball in hand we can do that and the most important thing for us is having the strength in depth to maintain those performances from week to week as it’s a really physical game.”
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Up-front people like Aaron Wainwright who has been outstanding in the last month and a couple of others, will need to take a breather so it’s important we rotate a couple of positions for sure.
