A seventh coach in six seasons is about to be installed at Rodney Parade in charge of Newport and Newport Gwent Dragons - and two longstanding members of staff have appealed for a period of stability.

In an unprecedented six-year run Allan Lewis, Ian McIntosh, Leigh Jones, Mike Ruddock, Declan Kidney - just for three weeks - and Chris Anderson have each been in charge, all bar Lewis having just one year at the helm.

With Anderson not being retained for a second year another coach is due to be installed with Paul Turner the latest once his commitments with Harlequins have finished this season.

Leigh Jones will remain as forwards/assistant coach with David Rees skills and development coach as well as Newport coach and Jim McCreedy - the one constant in that six-year period - still team manager.

Jones and McCreedy both urge the Dragons board to show stability and continuity once the latest coach is in place, especially after a disappointing and disjointed season which has seen the last three games lost with a point deficit of 87 with only 11 in favour.

"We are all paid professionals and have to switch off to outside influences, but circumstances dictate and hopefully things will happen behind the scenes to produce the stability we need," said Jones.

"Continuity is obviously an issue, but a lot of factors dictate and whether that becomes permanent will be determined by a number of factors.

"We just simply haven't been performing though we've got a quality squad here and we don't become bad players overnight."

McCreedy said, "You could blame the situation here (for the recent poor run) but there's more to it than that. The next appointment needs to be for two or three seasons, it's paramount, and the directors are aware of that.

"We've got to have time to build a squad, but a coach coming in would be delighted with the squad we've got here. We have hugely under achieved, but fortunately for me the people who have worked here, apart from Chris Anderson who was new, I had known them on a personal basis and they've all brought something to the table.

"If you go back to Gary Teichmann and Shane Howarth they'd say you don't build a side in five minutes, it takes two or three seasons. It's caused difficulties with new people coming in every year and we haven't got the continuity. We need to start with a clean sheet and go from there."

The Dragons, meanwhile, have got a whole series of injury problems going into their final league game of the season against Connacht at Rodney Parade on Saturday.

It's a match they must win if they are to secure a home draw in the Celtic Cup while hoping Llanelli Scarlets don't achieve a bonus point victory over Ulster at Ravenhill tomorrow night.

If both Welsh teams lose the Dragons could be overtaken by either Edinburgh or Glasgow or both and could have to go to Munster or Leinster for their cup quarter-final.

Threequarter Nathan Brew may need an operation on his troublesome ankle injury, Hal Luscombe is out and Michael Owen will need a fitness test on a knee injury while several others have got knocks, all of which could also impact on Newport's game at Llandovery.