Bernard Jackman is to take charge of the Dragons’ defensive coaching after the region decided to sack specialist Hendre Marnitz.
In what appears to be a last throw of the dice by Jackman – with his own job clearly on the line – he has decided to be more hands-on in a bid to turn around the spectacularly unsuccessful region.
It is understood Marnitz left the Dragons last weekend, but the news was kept under wraps until Thursday morning when the region issued a three paragraph statement – one more than the number of wins they have managed this season.
It said: “Dragons would to thank Hendre for his endeavour and commitment during his time with the region after joining us in August 2017.
“However, following the region’s recent run of form, the decision has been made to make a change to the backroom team at Rodney Parade.”
Managing director Mike Davies said: “On behalf of the Dragons I would like to thank Hendre for the contribution he has made to the team and wish him well in his future endeavour.”
South African Marnitz, a former Blue Bulls coach in Pretoria, joined the Dragons in the summer of 2017 – along with Jackman – but their defensive record has continued to be exceptionally poor.
They have leaked 33 tries in just eight matches this season and the team that sit rock bottom of Conference B of the Guinness Pro14 table were considered a ready supply of low-hanging fruit from opponents chasing bonus points.
That weakness, whatever improvements the Dragons may have made to their attacking game, was sending Jackman himself towards the exit, so he has decided to take his destiny into his own hands.
“We definitely needed to make a change and make things better. I am going to take control of it and I want to be more hands-on now,” Jackman told the South Wales Argus.
““There are areas that we can improve and we have started that process this week because we have got to build robust systems.
“Unfortunately we have been conceding tries very easily and teams know if they go through their sets and keep the ball against us then we will make system errors that result in missed tackles and line breaks.
“If you look at why we are missing tackles, we haven’t had enough clarity around our systems. We changed the system on Monday and are working hard in terms of how we drill that and how we review that to make sure people defend as a unit rather than as individuals.
“There has been a huge amount of work over the last 16 months which hasn’t been on the field – recruitment, retention and filling in spots in the support staff that we haven’t had before.
“That’s in place now and we have a young squad that we need to get playing to the best of their ability.
“I am looking forward to being hands-on and making them better. As head coach I have to take responsibility for it, we have made a change and now we need to make it better.
“It was a really tough decision but we want to turn the Dragons into a winning team,” said Jackman.
“We made plenty of hard calls last year to try and get the Dragons more competitive and we will have to continue to make those, whether that’s team selections or contracts for players and staff.
“We obviously need to improve our defence – we have conceded 33 (league) tries so far this season and that is an area that is the biggest area of concern and one that we haven’t seen consistency in.”
