THE Newport Gwent Dragons squad will soon be enjoying a well-earned rest – and they’d better make the most of it.

This season has largely been a forgettable one and in truth there’s little to convince that much will be different when making the end-of-term report in May 2013.

The gap between the Welsh regions may narrow as purse strings are tightened but it’s alarming that we are approaching the end of the season and the Dragons are still looking to nail down their signings. It’s encouraging that in this paper today head coach Darren Edwards reiterates the desire to add some old heads to aid in the development of his young players.

They are needed given the departures of Luke Charteris, Aled Brew, Jason Tovey, Martyn Thomas and the retirements of Tom Willis, Lloyd Burns, Ben Castle and Nigel Hall.

But you just hope that the region hasn’t yet again shot itself in the foot by dithering over giving the green light for recruitment.

A list of targets was drawn up long before January but the best never remain on the market heading into the summer break.

The Dragons can ill afford to be like those who shop at petrol stations on Christmas Eve – the Rodney Parade faithful won’t be impressed if the gifts that greet them at the start of next season are the rugby playing equivalent of a Pot Noodle, an air freshener and some antifreeze.

Thankfully, it appears there are still some bargains to be had. New arrivals are necessary and they need to bolster what will be a stripped down squad.

It came as some relief that the internal review of the region’s spending left the playing budget untouched.

But few in Europe’s three frontline leagues operate with such meagre sums and with so few on the training paddock.

Next season the Dragons will have a first team squad of around 38 players.

Two of those – Wales’ Toby Faletau and Dan Lydiate – will need to rest at the start of the campaign after their summer Test exertions then will be whisked away in autumn and during the Six Nations.

Then there are the injuries.

A 2005 study of 12 teams in England’s Premiership concluded that on average 18 per cent of a club’s players are unavailable for selection because of match injuries.

There is no getting away from the fact that it will be all hands to the pump next season with not too many selection headaches and a ‘you’re fit, you’re in the squad’ policy.

It’s a situation that makes one look at the Irish provinces with green eyes just as they look at Wales enviously when it comes to the international scene.

Leinster will head to Rodney Parade on Saturday with a squad that will be a shadow of the one that clung on for glory in Sunday’s thrilling Heineken Cup semi-final against Clermont Auvergne.

It will contain players that held the fort during the World Cup and have pretty much shouldered the burden throughout the Pro12 campaign.

Here are some selected Pro12 appearances this season: Jamie Heaslip – 5, Cian Healy – 7, Rob Kearney – 6, Sean O’Brien – 5, Jonathan Sexton – 6, Mike Ross – 7, Gordon D’Arcy – 6, captain Leo Cullen – 7.

Yet Leinster head into the final weekend of action with their top seeding secure and the cream of their talent primed for the toughest tests.

There is great strength in depth in Dublin and the same applies in the south of Ireland with Munster also having booked their spot in the end-of-season playoffs.

They may not be quite as fearsome as they were a season or two ago but Munster are still churning out the top talent.

Munster showcased some players of frightening potential in their A side’s British and Irish Cup final win against Cross Keys last weekend, notably the mightily impressive flanker Dave O’Callaghan. There was a wealth of Pro12 experience in a predominantly youthful side (its senior figures of Billy Holland, Denis Hurley and Denis Fogarty are 26, 27 and 28 respectively).

How Edwards and his coaches would love to be afforded the opportunity to dip their young guns in and out of their squad.


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IT’S often joked by their Gwent rivals that Cross Keys don’t have a supporters’ bus because a tandem will do.

The Pandy Park outfit would be the first to admit that they don’t have the largest following but the village club proved last Friday that they do have some tremendously loyal fans.

The televising of an all-French Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final meant that last Friday’s British and Irish Cup final in Cork was given a 5.30pm kick-off slot.

It wasn’t the most convenient time for the players, who had to book two days off work (some of them unpaid), let alone supporters.

Some fans were even in Ireland on Friday evening but not in Cork courtesy of booking cheap flights to other airports on the presumption of a Saturday encounter against Munster A.

Nonetheless Keys still had a nice pocket of supporters who proudly cheered on their side and then toasted the first final of their club’s 127-year history in the clubhouse of the extremely hospitable Dolphin RFC in the south-east corner of Musgrave Park.

There were plenty of volunteers and supporters who could not afford to make the trip over to Ireland notably club historian Horace Jefferies, who is of invaluable help to my colleague Iwan Davies and I, and thankfully their wait to see Keys in a final hasn’t been a long one.

They may be comprehensively outnumbered by Pontypridd counterparts in the Millennium Stadium stands but hopefully a terrific Keys campaign will end with their small but devoted support celebrating a Swalec Cup final win on Bank Holiday Monday evening.