Don’t blame Dragons coaches for Glasgow drubbing, says Wales lock Andrew Coombs (From South Wales Argus)

Don’t blame Dragons coaches for Glasgow drubbing, says Wales lock Andrew Coombs

7:00am Friday 22nd February 2013 in Dragons By Chris Kirwan

ANDREW Coombs believes it’s wrong to point the finger of blame at the Newport Gwent Dragons coaches following the humiliating, record-breaking defeat to Glasgow.

The Wales lock believes his teammates are the ones that must shoulder the responsibility – but is backing them to make it a Welsh double in Italy this weekend.

The 28-year-old will line up for Wales in Rome on Saturday afternoon in the Six Nations.

Then less than 24 hours later in Parma his regional teammates will go up against Zebre in the RaboDirect Pro12.

Coombs was in the stands at Rodney Parade to witness first hand the shocker against Glasgow when the Warriors ran in eight tries in a 60-3 drubbing.

And he believes his teammates will rise to the challenge as they bid to repair some of the damage.

“I don’t think you can beat around the bush and the players will be the first people to say that it wasn’t good enough,” said Coombs.

“They have got to put a lot of hard work in this week to try and turn it around because it wasn’t acceptable. A lot of people have questioned the coaches but the way I see it is that it’s down to the boys on the field and it’s up to them to make those tackles.

“I have no doubts that they will fire back and there is no better place to go and prove yourself than in Zebre.

“They will have targeted this game as winnable and if we can get the win it will go some way to answering a lot of the questions.”

The Dragons’ thumping loss to Glasgow led to them sounding out former Sale boss and Ebbw Vale captain Kingsley Jones about heading the coaching team at Rodney Parade.