Newport Gwent Dragons are one of the four remaining regional sides in Wales and playing in the Celtic League. Like the other Welsh sides they took the opportunity to strengthen their squad when the Celtic Warriors were disbanded this year.

Along with the Neath-Swansea Ospreys they have been having a good year to date with 5 wins out of 6 and are currently lying second in the Celtic League with away wins at Ulster, Glasgow and Cardiff and home wins against Leinster and a white wash v Llanelli.

Their squad is littered with internationals including Percy Montgomery, ex Falcon Ross Beattie, Welsh Internationals Kevin Morgan, Gareth Wyatt, Ceri Sweeney, Gareth Cooper, Ian Gough, Hal Luscombe, Chris Anthony and Michael Owen and Canadian Rod Snow. They have an extremely abrasive and effective back row with players like Jason Forster, Michael Owen, Jamie Ringer and Richard Bryan.

Percy Montomery

On paper they are a much stronger squad than the Newport outfit that beat us some years ago. There again our squad is also much stronger on paper. Having had some good wins against the Irish provinces, albeit without their internationals, the Dragons faltered last week struggling to overcome a game but underpowered Borders side. This could be just the kick up the backside they needed to raise their game against us.

In 2001/02, Newport were our first and last opponents.  On a dark September night at Kingston Park over 5,000 witnessed the Welsh side defeat the Falcons 21-34.  We began the game with a front row of Micky Ward and two other players (Christian Balshen and James Isaacson) boasting only three Premiership starts between them, as well as Epi Taione and Rob Devonshire in the back row.  All of our points came from seven penalties kicked by Jonny Wilkinson.

The return match at Rodney Parade was played in front of over 8,000 on Friday January 11^th 2002.  This time we were destroyed 53-17, but six of our starting line-up had started 3 days previously at home to Leinster.  Lacking players such as Jonny Wilkinson, Jamie Noon, Tom May and Stuart Grimes we were never in the game, although we did score two tries from Gary Armstrong and Ian Peel, with David Walder converting both and kicking a penalty too.

Walder was the only player to start all six of our Heineken Cup matches in 2001/02, although Va’aiga Tuigamala started five and was a used replacement at home to Toulouse.  Our top points scorer was unsurprisingly Wilkinson with 62 (4C, 17P, 1DG), while Taione was the only player to score more than one try with two.

On form you have to put the Dragons as favourites at Rodney Parade where I would expect Ceri Sweeney to run the game the way we all wish Wilko would. Expect a lot of kicks to the corners with speedy wings Luscombe and Breeze following up quickly. However, despite their experienced backline they have struggled to put sides away and run up big scores. If our pack front up, and defensively we don’t give them space, there is always an outside chance of a surprise win.

Our best hope lies in the Falcons ability to win cup games at a time when they can barely win at tiddlywinks in the league. The win against London Irish earlier this year was completely at odds with form at the time. It was the height of the silly half hour season where games were thrown away, yet the standard of play against the Oirish moved up a level.

Things had improved a little to manage a draw against Leicester just before the Twickenham final in April, but it was not the Leicester performance we witnessed recently. The standard of rugby played against Sale at Twickenham would have seen that Leicester team sent packing. Once again the cup game was played well then form dropped right off again afterwards.

One of Rob Andrew’s pre-season statements was that our current team could beat anyone in the ZP, every game could be treated like a cup game. Does this explain an attitude that wins cup games but throws away league games? If this is the case, and the team can play to a higher standard when there are no second chances for losers, there must be a huge problem with motivation at Kingston Park.

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