OUR two-part interview with new Newport Gwent Dragons chief executive Gareth Davies, which concluded yesterday, made for fascinating reading.

Mr Davies, successful in both his rugby and business career, seems like the perfect candidate to steer the Dragons away from what has been a rocky period for the professional region.

He is absolutely correct to focus on the way in which the Dragons market themselves and to emphasise that you have to speculate to accumulate.

Spectators will not turn up at Rodney Parade just because they have done so in the past. Much more needs to be done to create and sustain interest around the region.

We are also pleased to see that Mr Davies is not going to shy away from tackling a problem that has dogged the Dragons since the region's inception - getting support from the rest of Gwent.

As regular readers will remember, there was an outcry when the name 'Newport' was not included in the region's original name. That was soon changed but there has been a feeling ever since that the 'Gwent' part of the equation has suffered as a result.

How Mr Davies approaches this issue will be interesting. Can he make the Dragons a true Gwent region without alienating its hardcore Newport-based support?

There is a challenge ahead for the Dragons but it looks as though they have a man at the helm who is ready to meet it.