{"id":78020,"date":"2025-08-18T18:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78020\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T18:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:18:07","slug":"dragons-say-elite-rugby-must-remain-in-gwent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78020\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragons say &#8216;elite rugby&#8217; must remain in Gwent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dragons&#8217; owners say elite rugby must remain in Gwent and the side &#8220;has every reason to continue proudly in its current form&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) will present their &#8220;optimal solution&#8221; concerning the future of the domestic game in the next few days.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>This could include the reduction of professional sides from four to three or even two with Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets the four current organisations.<\/p>\n<p>There will then be a six-week consultation period with stakeholders before a final decision is expected by the end of October.<\/p>\n<p>The Welsh sides have been jostling to show why they should survive. Ospreys have unveiled plans to move into a revamped St Helen&#8217;s in Swansea while Scarlets have revealed new investors.<\/p>\n<p>Cardiff are currently owned by the WRU after going into administration in April but WRU chief executive Abi Tierney recently said &#8220;it was hard to see a model where you don&#8217;t see rugby being played in Cardiff&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>What Dragons say<\/p>\n<p>A Dragons statement was released on behalf of owners David Wright, David Buttress and Hoyoung Huh.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When we took over the Dragons in 2023 our ambition was clear, we wanted to build a club that could thrive both on and off the field,&#8221; the statement read.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That commitment has not changed. With the incredible support of our staff, players, partners and above all our fans we are making progress.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have established financial stability and we remain focused on driving forward on field performances.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the coming weeks we will take part in the WRU consultation on the future of the game in Wales.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our message will be simple and consistent &#8211; elite rugby must remain in Gwent and Dragons RFC has every reason to continue proudly in its current form.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dragons were one of the five Welsh regional sides created in 2003 before it was taken over by the WRU in 2017 after the organisation had suffered financial difficulty.<\/p>\n<p>Dragons <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/rugby-union\/66046856?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bsport%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:returned to private ownership;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">returned to private ownership<\/a> in June 2023 but have been in recent years the worst performing Welsh professional side.<\/p>\n<p>The statement continued: &#8220;Like all Welsh fans we also want to see a strong national side, this requires a robust and competitive regional set up.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We expect the WRU to listen carefully to all feedback during the consultation process and to reflect the views of every stakeholder when shaping its final proposals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have great fans, dedicated staff and players, and fantastic partners. As custodians of Dragons RFC, we&#8217;ll continue to represent the interests of our entire rugby community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755541087_13_\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dragons&#8217; owners say elite rugby must remain in Gwent and the side &#8220;has every reason to continue proudly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,59700,59696,59698,59699,760,59697,85,12816],"class_list":["post-78020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-david-buttress","tag-gwent","tag-professional-side","tag-professional-sides","tag-rugby","tag-scarlets","tag-sports","tag-welsh-rugby-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}