More of the same for the run-in, demands Dragons coach Darren Edwards (From South Wales Argus)

More of the same - we've had enough thank-you Darren.

More defeats I think he means but no one can be sure of the words from men without honour.

Mr Edwards would have served well as a senior officer in the last two world wars. It is men of his calibre who saw defeats as victories.What next? Renaming the stadium to Dunkirk Dragons Den?

Darren......It was a great response yet we STILL LOST AGAIN AT HOME!!!! I d love to have a Job like DE where failure is accepted by my bosses as long as i'm putting in some degree of effort!! Absolute Joke from Top to Bottom!!

“I thought that the whole back row was outstanding and got over the ball a lot, while Lewis Evans also led the team superbly.

“In the second half every player was brave, committed, gave everything and really wanted to play hard for the Dragons.

“They deserved their bonus point for outstanding defence and still having the energy after all that to go right down the other end to score a try.”

WE LOST AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

East Newport Dave wrote:
“I thought that the whole back row was outstanding and got over the ball a lot, while Lewis Evans also led the team superbly.

“In the second half every player was brave, committed, gave everything and really wanted to play hard for the Dragons.

“They deserved their bonus point for outstanding defence and still having the energy after all that to go right down the other end to score a try.”

WE LOST AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think you will all accept he was talking about the way the Dragons played after such a disastrous starting ten minutes. If we were awake from the start the scoreline may well have been different. DE is saying we must perform with the same level of determination for the rest of the season and who knows with some luck and a better ref we can still cause some upsets.

Robert you cannot always be blaming the ref, he's the same ref for both sides and in our case the other side usually wins. I've watched the first Leinster try about 20 times now and can't see the knock on you complained about, as for the forward pass I take it you were level with play at that end of the ground to see it.

The way people talk about our second half performance you would think we had won by 30 points. By half time Leinster probably considered it job done and took their foot off the pedal. Don't forget, the second half revival came after the intervention of Dan in the dressing room to motivate the team, something Darren should have been doing months ago.

Decent players will not come to the Dragons until we get a coaching set up that they can believe in.

Robert Shillabeer wrote:

East Newport Dave wrote:
“I thought that the whole back row was outstanding and got over the ball a lot, while Lewis Evans also led the team superbly.

“In the second half every player was brave, committed, gave everything and really wanted to play hard for the Dragons.

“They deserved their bonus point for outstanding defence and still having the energy after all that to go right down the other end to score a try.”

WE LOST AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think you will all accept he was talking about the way the Dragons played after such a disastrous starting ten minutes. If we were awake from the start the scoreline may well have been different. DE is saying we must perform with the same level of determination for the rest of the season and who knows with some luck and a better ref we can still cause some upsets.

Here we go again. Refereeing has nothing to do with it. If the team performance is good enough, they should normally win at home. It is so dull counting on favourable refereeing decisions to buy a poor team a win. Darren Edwards was praising a team that just lost at home - RUBBISH!

I've said it over many months, the standard of refereeing is way belw wat is needed. There are three or four refs of acceptable standard, one Welsh one English and one Irish. Scotland have non worth calling professional and Italy are only just producing refs anywhere near the required standard. It's a fact that refs aren't anywhere near the standard both teams and supporters deserve and the game at professional level and indeed Championship standard needs refs of a good standard to survive, simple truth. Supporters call for players and coaches to be of a high standard so why not refs?

Refs not up to required standard ??? At least the Dargons are hey !!
WORLDCLASS Carbage

Darren old boy, careful what you ask for -you may just get it !! More of the same you'l get it...... "L"

pooles wrote:
Darren old boy, careful what you ask for -you may just get it !! More of the same you'l get it...... "L"

The Dragons may well not be up to standard, it's opinions from many. But, the standard of refs is poor all round, it's not just rugby, look at the appalling decision in the United game tonight, that changed the outcome of the Champions League for goodness sake. Not an easy job, but better must be delivered or the game will suffer.

Robert Shillabeer wrote:

pooles wrote:
Darren old boy, careful what you ask for -you may just get it !! More of the same you'l get it...... "L"

The Dragons may well not be up to standard, it's opinions from many. But, the standard of refs is poor all round, it's not just rugby, look at the appalling decision in the United game tonight, that changed the outcome of the Champions League for goodness sake. Not an easy job, but better must be delivered or the game will suffer.

We not only wander off the point onto refereeing but now into football. Robert uses anything to deflect away from the crisis at the Dragons. I give up.

East Newport Dave wrote:

Robert Shillabeer wrote:

pooles wrote:
Darren old boy, careful what you ask for -you may just get it !! More of the same you'l get it...... "L"

The Dragons may well not be up to standard, it's opinions from many. But, the standard of refs is poor all round, it's not just rugby, look at the appalling decision in the United game tonight, that changed the outcome of the Champions League for goodness sake. Not an easy job, but better must be delivered or the game will suffer.

We not only wander off the point onto refereeing but now into football. Robert uses anything to deflect away from the crisis at the Dragons. I give up.

No not deflecting anything, it's indicative of how poor refereeing has a bad effect on any sport and rugby seems to be the worst hit by bad decisions. When this is put alongside results that just get away from you it makes the position that much worse and defeat causes much dissolution with the side who suffer the poor judgement. No head coach, captain or team can do much about it when bad decisions are made but the referees body can and must be open and decisive to bring refs up to the standards demanded of them.

More playing losing rugby, more blaiming the referee, all the other teams are better than us, of course it is everybody elses's fault that we keep losing not ours!!!!

There are times when the only way to change a loosing mentality is to prune away some dead wood, time to get out the chainsaw out me thinks.

Before Darren Edwards and his staff get the sack, could we appoint Rob Shillabeer his assistant.

East Newport Dave wrote:
Before Darren Edwards and his staff get the sack, could we appoint Rob Shillabeer his assistant.

By that you just want me to be sacked, sorry to disappoint you but I've already retired. Stop throwing insults about and say something constructive. Poor refs have lost games at all levels of rugby. Take the case a weeks or so ago when the Dragons broke through and had a clear run to the try line but the game was stopped by the ref who gave the Dragons the put in at the scrum, very poor ref decision that or what, and there are far too many similar ref decisions not only at Dragons games but we see it every week and its dealt with in secret by the ref assessor's report not being made public. This could be done on the WRU website or the Rabodirect web site thus making it open.

Season ticket for next year? I’ll renew my joint NRFC & NGDRFC ticket but the message on the grapevine is a lot of supporters are thinking NOT!

It’s a familiar debate I’m hearing in the stand, and in my locals!

If it was based on effort we have seen from certain youngsters like N.Cudd and I.Jones it would be a resounding YES!
But spreading that effort between the squad that appears to have no stomach for a fight then the answer is NO!
Time after time I’m hearing! Yes, we don’t expect it in away games but at home we expect at the least some FIGHT!
I’m also hearing in some quarters, that the season has been over since the end of Sept when we beat Edinburgh! A back-bone of players got injured or left for the autumn internationals and have never really returned! The players left cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel and are not up for the fight they cant win and with some apprehension I can see what they are saying through their efforts on the pitch!

We have all discussed it until we are blue in the face!(and I don’t like mentioning the BLUES bit!)

The WRU involvement in the Dragons does not help!

There’s no doubt that we have young players with huge potential!

We lost a lot of our game changing players and I suspect more will follow through the same door!

The only way to give these players a sporting chance is to bring in some key experienced players in certain positions! But if this is not done sooner rather than later it might be too late and the spiral to the inevitable will happen!

No regional rugby in Gwent by 2015!

At least some of these players deserve a rousing send off against Munster at RP!

So, please for the players who have been trying there hearts out for us, turn up and support them for this game! Show them how much we appreciate the effort they put in even when we have lost games!

As for the board! You better pull your fingers out on the player front or we might be playing in front of 3,000 supporters next year! Most of which will not be season ticket holders!

Do you think that people from all over Gwent will travel down to see a regional side get stuffed every week! Simple answer is NO! So the majority will be local rugby supporters!

YOU BEEN WARNED!

Robert Shillabeer wrote:

East Newport Dave wrote:
Before Darren Edwards and his staff get the sack, could we appoint Rob Shillabeer his assistant.

By that you just want me to be sacked, sorry to disappoint you but I've already retired. Stop throwing insults about and say something constructive. Poor refs have lost games at all levels of rugby. Take the case a weeks or so ago when the Dragons broke through and had a clear run to the try line but the game was stopped by the ref who gave the Dragons the put in at the scrum, very poor ref decision that or what, and there are far too many similar ref decisions not only at Dragons games but we see it every week and its dealt with in secret by the ref assessor's report not being made public. This could be done on the WRU website or the Rabodirect web site thus making it open.

Robert, this referee rubbish is wearing. Focus needs to be on the Dragons and making things better, not going off on a tangent. Blaming the referee for a poor result is like a bad workman blaming his tools. You remind me of when I went to Somerton Park as a boy in the 1970s. A large section of the crowd spent all game baiting the linesmen and referee. It really was so pathetic.

Without good officials the game won't get any better, you must agree with that. You can have the best payers in the world but por or indifferent match officials will always hold the game back. The unions have tried to improve this by having central arrangements to assess the competence f officials and grading them according to both. Their ability and competence, but, there is a long way to go before that reaches the standard required. Keeping results of assessments behind closed doors does nothing to improve refs or touch judges. The game last night and the decision of the ref to red card a United player has resulted in much shouting about his performance and guess what FIFA have come out backing the ref, no suprise there and rugby is the same. Protect refs from unfair critisism but don't hide the truth simply because they claim it deters others from taking up the role. I use this forum to raise this issue because it's not raised anywhere else as its a taboo subject.

FIFA should of course be UEFA

Robert Shillabeer wrote:
Without good officials the game won't get any better, you must agree with that. You can have the best payers in the world but por or indifferent match officials will always hold the game back. The unions have tried to improve this by having central arrangements to assess the competence f officials and grading them according to both. Their ability and competence, but, there is a long way to go before that reaches the standard required. Keeping results of assessments behind closed doors does nothing to improve refs or touch judges. The game last night and the decision of the ref to red card a United player has resulted in much shouting about his performance and guess what FIFA have come out backing the ref, no suprise there and rugby is the same. Protect refs from unfair critisism but don't hide the truth simply because they claim it deters others from taking up the role. I use this forum to raise this issue because it's not raised anywhere else as its a taboo subject.

Yawn! Move on! Next.

East Newport Dave wrote:

Robert Shillabeer wrote:
Without good officials the game won't get any better, you must agree with that. You can have the best payers in the world but por or indifferent match officials will always hold the game back. The unions have tried to improve this by having central arrangements to assess the competence f officials and grading them according to both. Their ability and competence, but, there is a long way to go before that reaches the standard required. Keeping results of assessments behind closed doors does nothing to improve refs or touch judges. The game last night and the decision of the ref to red card a United player has resulted in much shouting about his performance and guess what FIFA have come out backing the ref, no suprise there and rugby is the same. Protect refs from unfair critisism but don't hide the truth simply because they claim it deters others from taking up the role. I use this forum to raise this issue because it's not raised anywhere else as its a taboo subject.

Yawn! Move on! Next.

Typical answer,accept the mediocre simply because you don't challenge it. I want very good refs, will accept the odd mistake as they are only human, but to repeat the same errors on such a regular basis s totally unacceptable.

in all honesty,can all the critics about robs opinion on refs. put there hands on hearts and say they have been happy with all the refs. this season, i know the team could and should play a lot better but when we get the class of refs. we've had most of the season you can see where rob is coming from.

"Accept the mediocre", that's a good one Robert, you have been defending the mediocre at the Dragons but you can't accept it in officials.

I can agree that refereeing standards are poor right to the top level, but you can't put all the blame on officials when we have a team of, at best, average players and way below average coaches.

I don't accept that bad decisions should happen, but they do tend to even out for both sides, you can't tell me there weren't any poor decisions that were in favour of the Dragons, but you don't complain about them.

Robert Shillabeer wrote:

East Newport Dave wrote:

Robert Shillabeer wrote:
Without good officials the game won't get any better, you must agree with that. You can have the best payers in the world but por or indifferent match officials will always hold the game back. The unions have tried to improve this by having central arrangements to assess the competence f officials and grading them according to both. Their ability and competence, but, there is a long way to go before that reaches the standard required. Keeping results of assessments behind closed doors does nothing to improve refs or touch judges. The game last night and the decision of the ref to red card a United player has resulted in much shouting about his performance and guess what FIFA have come out backing the ref, no suprise there and rugby is the same. Protect refs from unfair critisism but don't hide the truth simply because they claim it deters others from taking up the role. I use this forum to raise this issue because it's not raised anywhere else as its a taboo subject.

Yawn! Move on! Next.

Typical answer,accept the mediocre simply because you don't challenge it. I want very good refs, will accept the odd mistake as they are only human, but to repeat the same errors on such a regular basis s totally unacceptable.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZ!Yawn!ZZ!

SWBorderer wrote:
"Accept the mediocre", that's a good one Robert, you have been defending the mediocre at the Dragons but you can't accept it in officials.

I can agree that refereeing standards are poor right to the top level, but you can't put all the blame on officials when we have a team of, at best, average players and way below average coaches.

I don't accept that bad decisions should happen, but they do tend to even out for both sides, you can't tell me there weren't any poor decisions that were in favour of the Dragons, but you don't complain about them.

I'm talking about poor refs at any game, the Blues had a stinker the other week so it's not just at the Dragons. Glad you agree though that refs standards are at best poor and to rely on them evening themselves out through the game won't wash, an error by the ref in one situation won't be balanced out by another in a different situation. Can you explain why a ref pulls a game back from a potential try scoring break and awards the put in to the attacking side, what about advantage?

I didn't see that incident but there are many reasons why this would be done if the attacking side had somehow infringed the laws , i.e. knock-on of forward pass, the ref would then bring them back for the original offence. As I say, I didn't see it so can't comment on the specific decision.

There is a chronic shortage of quality referees at all levels, I put much of the blame on the over complicating of the Laws. One thing I would love to see scrapped is this idea that you can run in front of the ball, one man's decoy runner is another man's obstruction and whichever way the ref sees it he will be wrong. It would also be good to see the scrum steady before the put in, and the ball to be put in straight.

Whatever you say about refs ( I don't really have a strong opinion either way) you have to accept that they are as good or bad for every other team. over the course of a season their decisions would tend to even out?
In regards to the Man U refs decision why was it appalling?