IT took just hours for the panic to set in.

On Saturday morning we were being told that Wales clubs made up a tenth of the English Premier League. On Saturday evening they made up two thirds of the relegation zone.

Arsenal fans and Newcastle supporters are apoplectic with rage, those in the colours of Sunderland are already worrying while judgement is already being passed on the survival credentials of Crystal Palace and Hull.

The opening exchanges are filled with title showdowns and relegation six-pointers; welcome to the world of English football where everyone seems make Australian cricket selectors look calm and balanced.

That tables are even produced in the first month of the season is ridiculous let alone the dotted lines that mark out top spot, those for the drop and the Champions League berths.

It's not just in the top flight, Newport County have made a pleasing start to life back in the Football League but I'm sure that boss Justin Edinburgh would be the first to admit that the dust has not yet settled.

It will be some time before a sane judgment can be made on how a club has opened up yet that doesn't stop plenty from venting their fury on radio phone-ins and internet messageboards.

Grown men stomp their feet like toddlers; patience is a virtue that few sports followers seem to possess.

But, at the risk of contradicting myself, it won't take long before we are able to make an early call on Newport Gwent Dragons' RaboDirect Pro12 campaign.

The region will have played more than a quarter of their games before October has passed.

They only have 22 league encounters as opposed to Cardiff and Swansea's 38 and County's 44.

The Dragons cannot be playing catch-up against their Welsh rivals like they were last season when their fate was sealed with Boxing Day defeat to Cardiff Blues in the capital.

It won't be long until we know the state of the region's Pro12 campaign but it will be an awful lot longer before we can judge the building job being done by director of rugby Lyn Jones.