DRAGONS A coach James Chapron wants more fixtures after hailing the Celtic Cup as an upgrade for the development of the region's youngsters, writes Chris Kirwan.

The tournament was established this season to fill the void left by the end of the British and Irish Cup with the Welsh regions locking horns with Irish provinces.

The Dragons endured a tough time in terms of results, losing five of six games in the competition that was won by Leinster, but academy manager Chapron saw his young prospects make strides.

They continued that with an extra game against Hong Kong in Ebbw Vale on Monday night when they ran out 28-24 winners against the World Cup hopefuls in freezing conditions.

The Rodney Parade region have explored the possibility of taking on English development teams but finding space in the jam-packed calendar is a challenge.

"A second block would be good," said Chapron. "I don't think that we could play much more than we have now with the autumn internationals coming up.

"They are going to look at how the season is structured around the Rugby World Cup (in 2019) but a second block of fixtures would be nice any time outside of the international space."

The Dragons beat Connacht Eagles in the Celtic Cup but lost the other five, although they performed encouragingly against the other three Irish provinces.

"I have seen real progress," said Chapron. "From going away to Munster and Ulster, staying in the hotels and the travel, the boys and the coaching team have learnt a lot.

"The competition was strong. We played Leinster in Ystrad Mynach and even though the result didn't go our way it was a different level of game that the boys have to play at – when you make a mistake it is so costly. That will hold them in good stead moving forward.

"We had the same group pretty much throughout the block and (Dragons boss) Bernard Jackman was good at releasing boys at the start of the week and we trained live against the seniors.

"We had 80 per cent of the players for the whole six weeks and that gave us consistency for coaching, whereas in B&I there was chopping and changing for the two-week blocks.

"It allowed us to continually work with the players and get them better."