MUCH attention shifts towards Principality Stadium in autumn weeks but the focus of Dragons supporters will be fully on Rodney Parade matters in a vital period in the reign of Bernard Jackman.

All coaches are under pressure but it is intensifying on Jackman from many long-suffering fans, although there is no sign of impatience yet from the board.

It is a situation that is in part of his own making; state that things are awful but pledge they will be better next year and you’d better deliver.

Since heading to Rodney Parade from Grenoble, Jackman has encountered many problems that would be familiar to his predecessors. The budget has gone up but it is still dwarfed by rivals.

The Dragons was always going to be a long-term project, one that the former Ireland hooker is unlikely to see the benefits of.

Players often talk about the importance of leaving the jersey in a better place and the same applies for coaches; Jackman is charged with implementing change that, in all likelihood, the next Dragons boss will prosper from, whether that is in 2019, 2020, 2021, whenever.

Head coaches have to trust their judgement and block out the outside noise… yet rather than jeers, boos and catcalls it was disturbingly quiet at Rodney Parade last Friday. Indifference is more worrying than rage.

In the classified results, the 35-21 loss to Northampton doesn’t seem disastrous but those that were present will beg to differ.

The members of the board and most of the coaching staff are new to the Dragons, so don’t have the points of reference that the rest of us possess to measure misery.

I operate on a scale that goes from the highs of Stade Francais and Gloucester to the depths of Glasgow, a 60-3 home defeat to a Warriors side without its internationals.

Last weekend wasn’t that bad, but it was approaching it in terms of gloom in the first half.

The error-strewn, rudderless display made a Saints side struggling domestically look like European heavyweights, all this despite the Dragons XV featuring nine internationals.

Jackman signed 14 players last summer and eight of them were involved against Northampton while he reshaped his backroom staff, but if there has been progress this season then it has been minimal.

Those small steps – hard-earned wins against Zebre and Southern Kings, being bloody-minded at Glasgow – have to turn into strides before the end of the year.

A coach’s success often comes down to their recruitment, especially when money is as tight as it is at Rodney Parade.

The Dragons recruited heavily for this season but the jury is out on the majority of the 14, particularly the high-profile ones.

Jordan Williams and Rhodri Williams are yet to really hit their straps, Ross Moriarty has been okay but not dazzling for a player on a massive deal while Samoa lock Brandon Nansen looks rusty.

The former Ospreys front row trio of Ryan Bevington, Richard Hibbard and Aaron Jarvis ensure there is no drop-off from the bench but are yet to really put pressure on the players they have been signed to push for starts.

Those individuals need to stand tall in the coming weeks and months, but it isn’t just down to those that cross the white line.

If a player of potential isn’t hitting the heights, especially those like Rhodri and Jordan Williams who could have been Wales bolters, how much is down to the man and how much is down to those coaching them and shaping the gameplan?

The Dragons have been fielding XVs that are on paper their strongest for years but the performances have been underwhelming at best, shambolic at worst. It has heaped the pressure on the next block of fixtures.

They need to at least repeat their Glasgow fight in Ulster tomorrow.

They need to at least threaten victory at one of their peers, Connacht, in Galway a week on Saturday.

They need to beat Edinburgh at Rodney Parade at the end of the month.

Chairman David Buttress won’t act hastily when it comes to Jackman, and the pair have a tight relationship, but poor results and performances must have their ramifications, such is the life of a head coach in professional sport.

South Wales Argus:

JASON Tovey’s Dragons story is set to become a trilogy, thus avoiding a premature end to the fly-half’s life as a professional.

It didn’t feel quite right when the 29-year-old from Risca signed for Cross Keys in the summer after leaving Edinburgh; the playmaker was heading for Pandy Park at least a couple of seasons too early.

Tovey still has plenty to offer and now, with an initial return to Rodney Parade on permit, has a chance to earn a return to full-time rugby.

There will be those that say this is a backward step by the Dragons, but I am firmly in the camp that believe it is righting a wrong and that Tovey should never have been frozen out two years ago.

The fly-half is a quality player who is perhaps a victim of a sensational start to life at the Dragons that made onlookers think that it was a matter of when, not if, Tovey was capped.

Possibly it was his laidback nature, maybe it was down to his region’s underperformance as a whole, it might have been that Warren Gatland just didn’t like something about him or his game, but the left-footer never did make it onto the Test stage.

The closest he came being in 2009 when he could not tour north America because of a European play-off along with Lewis Evans and Dan Lydiate.

Tovey is not an international but he is in the bracket of fine players just beneath that level and is just what the Dragons need.

Their lack of an experienced 10 has been blindingly clear for several seasons now and last summer Bernard Jackman merely added two more players of potential in Josh Lewis and Jacob Botica after being unable to snap up an established game manager.

Given the Dragons’ budget, Tovey is as close as it comes to a safe bet.

He’s a seasoned campaigner, he won’t be flustered, he kicks his points, he get his side in the right areas, he can help in the development of Lewis, Botica and Arwel Robson.

A quality, already developed fly-half is top of Jackman’s shopping list for next season but in the meantime there is a simple question: Is Jason Tovey an upgrade? The answer is a resounding yes.