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United Rugby Championship

Dragons burn Scarlets as URC roll gathers momentum

By PA
A URC flag (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Dragons overcame Scarlets 28-5 in their United Rugby Championship basement battle to rise five places in the table to 10th.

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Tries from Tinus de Beer, Oli Burrows, David Richards and George Roberts gave Dragons a bonus-point victory over their Welsh rivals.

Ellis Mee provided Scarlets’ solitary response when the Wales wing wriggled over to make the score 7-5 at half-time.

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Dragons pulled away after the break as bottom-placed Scarlets paid for their indiscipline at Rodney Parade.

Harvey Cuckson spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin in the first half for a no-arms tackle, and fellow lock forward Max Douglas had his yellow card straight after the restart upgraded to a 20-minute red.

Dragons failed to win a game in 2025 until beating Lyon in the Challenge Cup on December 14, but the Newport-based side have now won two of their last three URC fixtures.

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United Rugby Championship
Dragons RFC
28 - 5
Full-time
Scarlets
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Comments on RugbyPass

P
PMcD 14 minutes ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

Who could ever forget the lovely mullet of Jack Goodhue. 🤣🤣🤣

650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 18 minutes ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

It doesn’t help that English Premiership has a salary cap lower than FRA vs no cap in Ireland and the Investec has no salary cap whatsoever, so we keep the qualification process within a salary cap structure (in England & France) and then don’t have one for the competition process.

We then saw players being signed on short term contracts as injury cover for the investec but not registered to play in the Premiership (to stay within the cap).



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 28 minutes ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

Bottom 3 sides in the PREM are probably NPC level but there is not a huge amount of difference between the Top 7 teams above them.

At a guess, the best placed Premiership team (Bath) would probably be 4th or 5th in Top 14.



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 36 minutes ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

It must be a really tough and unenjoyable life living in South West France. 🤣🤣🤣

I am sure he is longing for the days of horizontal rain in Limerick, or even the odd days when it bounces off the floor and still hits you in the face. 🤣🤣🤣



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650 Go to comments
O
Over the sideline 44 minutes ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

Lots of interesting figures there. It makes a sad read. The numbers are lower in NZ rugby but the story is the same.

With regards to league and union getting back together, I could almost see some type of hybrid comp in Aus/NZ but can you imagine the politics from both sides.



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 49 minutes ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

It’s certainly a position that requires a certain mindset and anything less than 101% usually falls short in that position.

Have you ever seen data on what the force load is in an International scrum? I can only imaging how much pressure they must feel going through them and the level of physical strength required.



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 55 minutes ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

Well . . . .

French Top 14 has the most valuable tv deal, the highest average matchday attendances, are dominating the Investec and has led to FRA being the 6 N’s Champions, so something is clearly working from this unwierdly, lopsided process JW.



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

Move aside Mike Tindall - we are starting our own rugby revolution. 🤣🤣🤣

650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

I think they rotated the tour each year, that could actually work - NZ team in UK one year and UK team in NZ the next.

650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

So NB - Happy New Year. Let’s start it off with a tough but searching question.

Do you think Racing 92 will ever return to a dominant team under Jackie’s ownership?



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

Yes, he was always seen as a great try scorer/finisher but his ability to bounce that first tackle and then break out into the player be became was at Toulouse.

Do you think that was down to the style they like to play in, or simply the coaches saw something that was possible with him, as they have almost repeated the same trick with Capuozzo, which suggests it was more than a coincidence.



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650 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

He did play DDA at 13.. he is a class operator now doubt about it. We had a similar player in Goodhue but on attack.

I hope he goes that far, overplaying his hand is about our only chance.



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

Whilst Stu Hooper took an absolute battering from the fans in his final 2 seasons, many of them missed how strong an Academy he developed at the club, which JvG has benefitted from but the greatest masterstroke was when JvG recruited Andy Robinson to run the Academy.

The rugby IQ and professionalism they are putting into the kids at an early age is incredible and credit to JvG, who is then trusting them with game time in the Senior Squad and big games.



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

OK, given I watch 5 or 6 games per weekend, over a 40 week season, let’s just accept that was up there within the worst 5 plays that I have seen across circa 200-240 games this season.

That’s not what I would expect from the All Blacks, so clearly something went missing on that one. 🤣🤣



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

Whilst he didn’t get a huge amount of game time, I think we saw that DDA is a better 12 in defence and AE is a better 12 carrier in attack.

I just wonder if the next Rassie innovation is a double 12 strategy, where he plays DDA at 12 to start and when they bring Esterheizen on at 7, they start to play DDA in defence and they switch positions in attack, so they can maximise Esterheizen carrying the ball.



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

It’s also where Etzebeth & Je Jager starting, with Syman & Nortje being on the bench is a worry.

With Steenekamp/Wessels/Louw all back to fitness, I think that Boks replacement front row will be stronger.



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J
JW 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

Ahh right, so the ones you didn’t mention are likely on listed as ‘marquee’ to save on the cap. Makes sense.

That’s exactly what a cap is designed to do. I don’t like them for the reason you describe, they are artificial and stop a teams true success. This is mainly because our competitions are representative based, local products.



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

I think you should be able to admit/accept the current SA scrum is the most dominant International scrum at the moment?

If so, just remind me where Matt Proudfoot was coaching before Rassie recruited him to join SA and build this latest dominant scrum? 🤔



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650 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

I get that it’s a little uncomfortable for people to question your countries coaching team but you have to move beyond that and consider the wider trends.

I think there is a pretty well proven trend, where coaches (are the catalyst), who then put in improved structures, improved training, who generate better players, more effective game strategies, which feeds into more dominant club success, then greater regional club success (usually Investec) and then it feeds into International success, usually TRC or 6N’s and then into RWC success.



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650 Go to comments
J
JW 2 hours ago
The coaching conundrum part two: Have New Zealand Rugby been too insular?

I thought you were talking about a World Club model there for a second. Having SR teams tour prior to their season kicking off (for say an ‘away’ leg) certainly would be cool though.

650 Go to comments
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