IT’S understandable that Newport Gwent Dragons’ on-field struggles have gone under the radar in 2017 given the uncertainty over their very existence.

There are bigger matters on the agenda than the battle in the bottom third of the Guinness PRO12 with the next four weeks or so set to determine the future of professional rugby at Rodney Parade.

Things are set to heat up regarding the Welsh Rugby Union’s proposed takeover of the Dragons and purchase of Newport RFC’s historic home with more detail set to be revealed.

An information pack should have landed on the doormats of Black and Ambers shareholders this morning ahead of next month’s EGM at Rodney Parade and the Q&A included inside will shortly be published for all to digest.

Answers have been promised by the Dragons hierarchy and time will tell about whether there are enough to satisfy the doubters with 75 per cent of voting shareholders needing to give the green light for the deal.

Board member Martyn Hazell, who is owed around £1.5million with fellow director Tony Brown owed around £3million, has said that there are two options – disaster or a yes vote – but many still suggest that other alternatives must at least be explored, and some point to the current set-up having already overseen a disaster.

But what is not up for debate is that the Dragons are in dire shape and in desperate need of saving; if the WRU do start calling the shots then this will take a long time to sort out.

Things have always been done on a shoestring budget and one real positive of the governing body being in charge would be a change of mindset towards investing in off-field matters. They also already possess plenty of expertise at Principality Stadium to make some quick improvements and aid over-stretched Rodney Parade staff.

However, the on-field development would take an awful lot longer and the WRU would need to attract plenty of private investment to increase the quality and depth in the playing ranks.

The Dragons currently have just 46 first team players listed on their website (four of which haven’t played in 16/17) while they gave game time in the Anglo-Welsh Cup to the likes of Bedwas back row forward Robson Blake and promising prospects Arwel Robson and Will Talbot-Davies.

They operate with the bare minimum of front row forwards, praying that nobody suffers a serious injury, and on Saturday they needed Charlie Davies to play the full 80 minutes at Zebre because he was the sole specialist senior scrum-half available.

The Dragons form since the turn of the year has been awful with their last victory coming against Enisei-STM on January 16.

They have lost nine on the spin and face the play-off chasing Scarlets at Principality Stadium on Saturday. If it was at Rodney Parade you’d certainly give them more of a fighting chance.

The Dragons have managed to bag just one point from a possible 30 since beating Treviso on January 6 and it is a sign of Edinburgh’s incompetence that they could still overhaul the ninth-placed Scots.

However, they are also looking over their shoulder at the Italian pair of Zebre and Treviso and it’s not impossible that Kingsley Jones’ side could finish the season in last place.

Alas, a slump in the second half of the season is nothing new and in 2016 they won just one game from February to May (their excellent European Rugby Challenge Cup quarter-final success at Gloucester).

That has to be linked to the squad depth and in recent months the Dragons have struggled without the finishing prowess of Wales wing Hallam Amos, a player who would grace most if not all sides in the PRO12, and number eight Ed Jackson and speedster Ashton Hewitt.

Flanker Ollie Griffiths is arguably the only player to have been standing out since the turn of the year and too many players have been a little underwhelming.

But whatever the future holds for the Dragons next season, and wherever they are calling home, it is hard to see things being dramatically different.

Without investment in the squad the same problems will exist with the same susceptibility to injury and fatigue.

Other teams have already been actively plotting for next season but the Dragons have confirmed just two signings – Gavin Henson and Zane Kirchner – and won’t have a raft more to come. If the WRU deal does get the go-ahead then it may take until 2018/19 for real strides to be made.

South Wales Argus:

PONTYPOOL were presented with their WRU National Championship trophy after their final home game of the season against Tata Steel on Saturday. By the time they are allowed to come up in 2020 the Principality Premiership might have sorted itself out.

A league campaign is a marathon not a sprint, so the cliché says, but the 2016/17 Premiership has been more like a fartlek run, a method of mixing fast pace with periods of jogging.

There has been no flow to the campaign with coaches and players having to contend with big blocks of inactivity and are currently twiddling their thumbs at a time when usually things would be reaching a crescendo.

Tier Two is a mishmash of teams who have played three, four, five or six fixtures while Ebbw Vale and Bedwas are currently going for the title but don’t play again until April 29. They have two regular season games left to play and then hopefully the play-offs that will extend their season into mid-May.

It should be pointed out that the Steelmen lifted the trophy on May 15 last year but this season’s schedule has been one to infuriate those that like a routine and the ability to plot their autumn, winter and spring when the fixtures are released in the summer.

Those that call the shots decided to tinker with the top flight of club rugby this season by introducing a January split and getting rid of home and away meetings.

In a sense there was some method in that madness and there was an element of excitement manufactured by the scramble to get into Tier One over the festive period.

Points were then scrubbed and whole thing has been a little too complicated with certain fixtures (such as RGC 1404 versus Ebbw and Bargoed against Newport) being duplicated.

There are many clubs feeling the financial strain – Pontypridd asked supporters for financial assistance in March and not everyone has a benefactor like Merthyr or big Union backing like RGC – and one wonders the value of attempting to bridge the sizeable gap between the Premiership and professional rugby.

Perhaps looking over the shoulder at the Championship, which is admittedly a little too small with 12 teams and 22 fixtures, provides a better blueprint for the Premiership.