DIRECTOR of rugby Dean Ryan is out of contract this summer but committed to the challenge at the Dragons despite a miserable season that has featured just one win.
The Rodney Parade side endured a frustrating 13-13 draw with a weakened Benetton in the United Rugby Championship on Friday night.
The Dragons, who were without five Six Nations players to the visitors’ 23, produced a poor display in Newport and were grateful that the Italians missed a penalty with the clock in the red after Wales hooker Elliot Dee was sent off for dangerously clearing out a ruck.
Ryan arrived in the summer of 2019 on a three-year contract with his role also including a seat on the Dragons board, with the accounts for the year ending 2020 revealing the director was paid £284,012.
The former Bristol, Gloucester and Worcester boss has won just 17 of 57 games since heading for Rodney Parade but hasn’t lost his appetite for the challenge despite a horror campaign and the usual financial constraints.
“I love this place and I love the people that I am trying to help. I love seeing the likes of Chris Coleman and Aneurin Owen grow, I’ll never lose sight of that,” he said, referring to the young talent coming through.
“That is what this place is and we will get better because they will get better.
“For the likes of Ben Carter and Taine Basham, I’ve just got to keep things stable because it would be easy to take moments like this and rip it all apart.
“We haven’t got enough resources for that, and we have an eye on the future and people who are coming to help us. That’s a combination that hopefully will keep us moving forward.”
The Dragons have signed Wales hooker Bradley Roberts for next season and are also targeting Exeter lock Sean Lonsdale and Bath centre Max Clark, who are both Welsh-qualified, plus Clermont Auvergne’s former Munster fly-half JJ Hanrahan.
Ryan said: “We can’t just sit with the same group and expect the trajectory to change, we’ve got to challenge people to be better and we’ve got to add people.
“It’s not easy being the Dragons and doing that [recruitment] with our resources, so we have got to be targeted with it.”
The Dragons are next in action in the URC when they entertain Ulster on Saturday, February 20 and then they face three away games on the spin against Munster, the Bulls and Sharks.
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