Jamie Soward has been a wonderful player for the Dragons. Even this season when the team is going so poorly if you look through the majority of games it seems to me that Soward has been involved in some capacity in most of the tries we have scored...whether cut out passes, kicks or line breaks. He has been the only spark in the backline close to the ruck. Even last Saturady it was Soward's long cutout pass that setup the last Prior try...and he scored our first try...so to say he is not contributing I think is inaccurate. So even last Saturday he was vitally involved in our 2 tries...what are the rest of the team doing??? Sure, the spark hasn't happended as often as we would like, but noone else has done anything. And yes, his goalkicking is going through a slump at the moment (lack of confidence) but in the current circumstances I still think he offers something to the team. Chase Stanley is a good goalkicker...give it to him to relieve Soward of some pressure.
I would be looking at keeping Soward and introducing Drinkwater to see of we can get some more spark close to the ruck...and maybe giving Vai Vai or Quinlan a run in the backline.
Interesting perspective, and I totally get that Fien tries every week, I love his attitude.. but I also feel like its pretty clear that hes not a 1st grade halfback, so to keep him seems a strange choice and we will be a lot more dependent on his kicking and passing game which is something that Sowie is a lot better at...Cant agree Rev - Fien is busting his ass out there, trying things and actually had a handful of try assists to his name, the only thing letting him down is his speed. Soward isn't looking to be putting in the same effort, he submits in tackles and doesn't want to go within 2m of the defensive line. And when question about his form, he falls back on the fact that he played SOO and won a premiership 2 years ago, without taking any responsibility for what he's doing now.
Dont get me wrong, I was a huge Soward fan...but if a young halfback or 5/8 is going to come into this team, I'd prefer him to learn the ropes from Fien at the moment..
What a piece of shit article.
I distinctly remember Nightingale supporting Soward after missing the kick. Whether that is just another credit to jason I don't know but watching it i really felt that he was in Sowards corner.
Lets wait and see if ANYONE gets dropped this week. They managed to retain their spots after scoring nil points. This week the scored 2 tries. Price will see that as improvement and justified his views of sticking by his players.
Geyer on 2MMM this morning said Soward has no support of his players and after getting knees in the back it was evident as no players backed him up.
I am pretty sure Vidot ran in and grabbed Barba and pushed him away. He made it sound as if no Dragons player gave a $hite but surely that was not the case. Did anyone else see anything different towards Barba after that incident?
Geyer on 2MMM this morning said Soward has no support of his players and after getting knees in the back it was evident as no players backed him up.
I am pretty sure Vidot ran in and grabbed Barba and pushed him away. He made it sound as if no Dragons player gave a $hite but surely that was not the case. Did anyone else see anything different towards Barba after that incident?
The article was titled "Phil Rothfield says".
Say no more.
If you want to impart blame, why don't you statr with Peter Doust and his management of the Dragon. Why don't you look at the rumours that talk about Doust and Craig Young not giving Price any support, why don't you look at Chase Stanley's dreadfull defence. Look at the whole shape and form of the Dragons attack.
There is a culture problem at the Dragons and this sort of thing usually starts at the top.
I thought we'd all moved on from the Oust Doust crap...
...... There is nothing wrong with the culture at the Dragons, ...
I'm sure that the players do get along quite well, but they are not playing like they know each other.I don't think there's really a culture problem. All the players generally get along really well. I follow them on instagram and they all like banter and post pictures of each other on there. Dugan seems to have found a new best mate in merrin. Even soward, who goes by the alias of jimmychow on instagram, gets included in some photos from matt cooper and etc