Lydiate released for Dragons (From South Wales Argus)

Lydiate released for Dragons

2:30pm Thursday 4th February 2010

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DAN Lydiate has been released by the Wales management to play for Newport Gwent Dragons in Sunday’s LV Cup tie against Saracens at Vicarage Road, Watford.

Wales coach Warren Gatland has deemed 22-year-old Lydiate, who was capped in the autumn series, surplus to requirements for the England game at Twickenham on Saturday so has released him to his region, along with other players.

The blindside flanker was also released for last week’s game against the Ospreys which the Dragons won handsomely, but they were not told in time to include him in the starting XV.

He went on as a replacement seven minutes into the second half and made a significant impact during the Dragon’s 40-19 victory.

That put them into second place in their group behind Northampton, but if they are to progress to only their second sem-final in any competition they will need to beat Saracens with a bonus point and hope Northampton are beaten by fellow Leicester without even gaining a losing bonus point.

So it’s a really tall order, made more difficult despite the release of Lydiate by the absence of their captain Tom Willis, who has returned to New Zealand for family reasons.

But the ever reliable Steve Jones has been one of the Dragons’ success stories this season, deputising for Willis for a large part of the campaign while he was out with a torn calf muscle.

In fact, Jones has missed just three of their 19 games this season, either starting or being a replacement in the other 16.

Though teams don’t tend to field their strongest line-ups in the LV Cup and under-20 players are not available for the later group stages because of their Six Nations Championship, Saracens boast a massive squad packed with internationals.

It’s a huge task for the Dragons, though they won’t be facing their former No 8 Michael Owen because the Wales lock has been out for some time with a badly damaged knee which has ended his season.

The Dragons’ Magners League match at Connacht, postponed on January 8, has been rearranged for Wednesday, March 17 (6.30 pm). It’s unusual in that it’s a midweek evening game in another country, but as it’s St Patrick’s Day it could attract a decent crowd.

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