The Newport Gwent Dragons and the Welsh Rugby Union are in the final stages of negotiating a takeover by the governing body. Robin Davey sees it as a positive step for a region that has bumped along the bottom for far too long.
There’s a new move in Welsh rugby with the first region set to be taken over by the Welsh Rugby Union – and it may not be the last, either.
For so long the regions have wanted to remain independent from the WRU even if funded in part by them and also working alongside them.
But the faltering Newport Gwent Dragons have been in talks with the Union for months, as well as with private investors, and a deal is about to be done giving the WRU control.
It will be a deal which will almost certainly guarantee the survival of the Dragons, who have been struggling for years, languishing as the worst Welsh region in eight of the past 12 seasons.
They have just shipped over 50 points to a largely second string Leinster team at Rodney Parade, fans booing the team off the field, though many had already walked out in unprecedented scenes.
They haven’t won away for two years and they rarely provide more than a couple of players to the national squad, thus finding themselves the poor relations in more ways than one.
Their annual playing budget is a mere £2.4m, pathetic in the professional era, leaving them well adrift of all their other rivals. No wonder they struggle to even compete, though no-one doubts the spirit and camaraderie of the squad. But, bluntly, they are nowhere near good enough.
It’s not only in playing performance and lack of finance where they’ve been floundering. While Rodney Parade remains a historic rugby ground, still favoured by many compared with the more soulless stadia further afield, the place is in need of repair, with all manner of problems at the ground.
And, worst of all, is the pitch where three teams playing on it – the Dragons, Newport RFC and Newport County – have added considerably to the wear and tear. Others believe the building of loads of apartments adjoining the ground has contributed to the drainage problems.
The pitch has often flooded, Newport County have had two games postponed, while the Dragons’ fixture against the Ospreys almost didn’t go ahead and the one against Newcastle did despite surface water on the pitch.
Faced with these problems the WRU have stepped in. Quite frankly, they were not going to carry on funding the Dragons if they continued to perform so woefully on and off the pitch.
The Dragons’ board put the business up for sale in an effort to stabilise the situation and while investors are out there they weren’t prepared to act alone.
So, the Union have been negotiating with the Dragons for many months, a task made extremely difficult by the complex situation regarding Rodney Parade Ltd and trying to unravel it.
There is no way, for example, that the new deal can maintain the link between the Dragons and Newport RFC, a situation the WRU and investors are not prepared to accept.
But it is believed the parties are now closing in on an historic deal which would bring the Dragons under WRU ownership, though first there will have to be a shareholders meeting.
That may not go too smoothly, for another intention in this new arrangement is to drop Newport and Gwent from the name and call the region simply the Dragons.
Many will object to that, believing the Newport name gives the region an identity and makes commercial sense, known worldwide and capable of attracting new business.
But Rodney Parade will remain the headquarters, and the Dragons it will be. A deal is likely before the end of this season and shareholders and fans will have to realise there is little choice.
For there is no doubt in my mind that if this takeover by the WRU did not take place the Dragons would be cut adrift and would go under.
Newport would be unable to sustain Rodney Parade from the Premiership and with Newport County set to be relegated from the Football League, the place would rapidly become a building site then, perhaps, a supermarket or more flats.
But taken over by the WRU, the investors who are undoubtedly out there – a collection of individuals I’m told with varying degrees of assets – the Dragons could be transformed.
They will be more stable financially, their £2.4m playing budget rising to £3.5m pretty quickly and supplemented further by the investors.
Those who fear the Union takeover of the Dragons need not be concerned, for chief executive Martyn Phillips is on the record as saying they want Gwent, with 73 clubs the most heavily congested district in Wales, to flourish.
There is no chance of the Dragons becoming a development region in the way Connacht were and neither will they be re-located to North Wales.
The Union want four thriving regions. They want a host of youngsters like Ollie Griffiths, Ashton Hewitt and Jack Dixon to flourish in a successful Gwent region.
A bit of a no-brainer then – and the Dragons may not be the last to go to the Welsh Rugby Union.
I gather at least one other region would welcome more Union involvement, if not a complete takeover similar to what is happening at the Dragons.
And WRU top brass are known to favour a mix of their involvement aided by investors for all their regions, much like the New Zealand model which so impressed them when Wales were on tour there last summer.
So there is absolutely no need to view WRU moves with any suspicion. They are about to rescue the Dragons and while things may never be the same again they may never be so bad, either.
