Now you wouldn't expect anything less than 'I told you so' from this column, would you?

Less than two months after the Welsh Rugby Union backed the Gwent Dragons name and just two weeks after the launch of the new regional name, there has been a massive U-turn.

There is to be a ballot among all Dragons season ticket holders and joint club/region season tickets holders on the future title of the regional side.

That represents a humiliating turnaround for those involved in the choice of the Gwent Dragons name, and even more so for those people involved in Gwent rugby and on the Welsh Rugby Union who even insisted that Newport could not be in the title.

All of them - and they know who they are, as do I - have been given a bloody nose.

The title is, of course, not yet Newport something, and it might not be if the rest of Gwent buy up season tickets in huge numbers, but the point is that the whole situation has been shown to be a total farce.

The bloody nose has been administered by the fans, of course, who in the brief Gwent Dragons' history have voted with their feet by staying away and refusing to purchase Gwent season tickets.

Newport have sold twice as many season tickets as the Dragons, though the regional tickets have been on sale for a shorter period, but clearly the long term signs were not good for Gwent Dragons.

Of course, the Dragons need the thousands of Newport fans to make them even remotely a commercial success, and rugby people from all over Gwent were never going to buy up season tickets to watch the Dragons at Rodney Parade.

I've been banging that drum for months and months, never mind emphasising the history and tradition of Newport RFC and how it would be folly and worse to lose that name.

From the moment WRU chief David Moffett caved in to Cardiff and Llanelli and allowed their names to stand alone while expecting three regions to combine, the whole scheme was dead in the water.

But why, oh why, oh why, couldn't the powers that be in the WRU and Gwent see the obvious reality? Why were they hell bent on throwing away the Newport name?

Well, it has now come back to bite them, and I would say it can't bite deeply enough.

Now it really is up to the Newport fans. They've got the chance, however belatedly, to go for it and change the name in their favour once and for all.

First, of course, they've got to buy Gwent Dragons season tickets, and if that goes against the grain and if they see the move as a cynical ploy to get them to support the Dragons, they've got to swallow their pride.

It will only be for one season, and if they don't buy these tickets, or a joint Newport/Gwent one, they will forever lose the opportunity to get the Newport name in the title.

And that would be unthinkable after all the water that's passed under the bridge.

The Gwent powers have realised pretty quickly that without the Newport fans the Gwent region cannot succeed commercially, and with no great financial backing behind the region it would be doomed.

But if they had seen this from the start it would never have come to this shambles - for a shambles is what it is - and Newport benefactor Tony Brown and all those fans would have been on board from day one.

As it is, neither the banks nor the WRU are going to bale Gwent out because there will clearly be a financial shortfall.

But better late than never, as they say. Now it's up to the fans at Rodney Parade to sign up not just for Newport but for Gwent as well. It'll be worth it.

To those who say do it now, it can't be achieved straightaway. The fixtures and names have all been drawn up for this season and in any case the name cannot be solely Newport or they will be classed as stand alone by the WRU just like Cardiff and Llanelli and receive £300,000 less funding this year and next. Even if Newport is still in the title, it will still be a regional team.

Just as tiring as the WRU and Gwent going down the same bumpy, even impassable, road is all the talk of performance, performance from Wales.

That was the buzz word again in Ireland at the weekend, when what fans want desperately is, as I've said before, win, win.

That is what it must be about against England on Saturday. This time it will be a below strength England, and I hope to goodness bets will not be hedged in the Welsh camp this week.

I wouldn't mind betting all we'll get is how advanced England are, that their second team is better than many first choices, all in an effort to soften the blow of an unheard of 11th successive defeat. Wales simply can't go down to a mainly England second team.

Victory must be the name of this particular game.