SHAUN Edwards has admitted he “fancied” taking over from Bernard Jackman at the Dragons when the Irishman was sacked last month.

Wales defence coach Edwards, 52, was reported to be replacing Jackman before the Rodney Parade region installed Ceri Jones as caretaker boss.

Former Wales prop Jones, who has won two of his five games in charge, has since been appointed head coach until the end of the season.

Speaking at Wales’ Vale of Glamorgan base yesterday, former rugby league legend Edwards said the Rodney Parade hotseat was a role that interested him.

However, with his Wales duties and a young family, Edwards felt taking on the job would put too much pressure on his partner.

“I spoke to the Dragons and I fancied going because I knew there were good lads there,” he said.

“I thought with simplifying a few things they could definitely improve, particularly the defence.

“That’s obviously my specialist area but I’ve been an attack coach, I was backs coach for Wasps under Warren (Gatland) when we won three championships and the Heineken Cup.

“But the thing was that with it being a World Cup year I’m away from my family a lot and I’ve got two small children, one four and one eight months.

"And I just felt it was a little bit too much for my partner to look after the two kids for the next nine months.”

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He added: “Also, the Ospreys (Edwards has been working with them in a consultancy role) have been good to me and I like finishing a job.

“I think I did a decent job at Cardiff last year and I wanted to do a similar thing with the Ospreys.

“Every time I’ve gone in somewhere I’ve wanted to try and get those teams back into the Heineken Cup.

“We probably overachieved a bit last year with the Blues, winning the Challenge Cup, but my goal was getting them back into the Heineken Cup.

“It’s my goal with the Ospreys and we’ve not done that yet.”

The current Wales coaching set-up, including Edwards, will leave for pastures new after this year’s World Cup in Japan.

But Edwards was quick to point out that the upcoming Six Nations, while his final one with Wales, isn’t necessarily going to be his last.

“It’s obviously a big year,” he said. “People keep saying it’s my last Six Nations but I’ve every intention of coming back to rugby union at some stage, maybe with another country.”

Edwards is set to take the reins at Super League giants Wigan Warriors, the club he won numerous trophies with in his playing days, in 2020.

“That’s still an option but things could change, you just never know what’s around the corner,” he said.

“If Lammy (Adrian Lam) came in and did the clean sweep I’m not going to spoil it, I’d step aside and let him continue, something like that.”