4:09pm Friday 16th May 2008
By Robin Davey
NEWPORT Gwent Dragons coach Paul Turner welcomes the move by rivals the Ospreys to form a development team and play around ten games next season.
Turner, with his background in English rugby, has been a strong advocate of an A' league for some time.
While that may not happen yet, the regions are clearly keen on playing a number of unofficial games at this level with the aim of giving their squad and academy players more rugby and also bridging the gap between the Welsh Premier Division and themselves.
"We have talked about this and the Dragons have got plans to play at least six games next season," said Turner after his team and the Ospreys played a pioneer game last season.
Turner's concern is that his rival regions have a bigger squad and also for the need to find a window to play these games.
But he says his ideal for a Dragons A team squad of 22 would be to include eight Dragons players - those coming back from injury and squad members - seven academy players and seven top club players from the Premier Division.
The Magners League, meanwhile, have announced an average attendance increase of 2.5% this season on last, with average gates up from 6,011 to 6,791, an increase of 13%.
David Jordan, director of Celtic Rugby, said: "This shows fans are endorsing the exciting style of rugby on offer in the competition.
"Across the European leagues only Leicester, Toulouse and Stade Francais can better the average gate of the Magners League's best supported team, Leinster who have seen average crowds in excess of 14,000 fans at each home game."
In a reference to plans by a number of teams to upgrade their stadia, Jordan said "We are anticipating an increase in these achievements in future years."
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