IT'S the start of a new year, the Six Nations Championship is but a month away and Wales have a new coach in place ready to put the ghost of the World Cup to rest.

But are we all optimistic? Is there evidence of the first green shoots of recovery? Are Wales on the way back? Can they rise from the ashes of their current tenth place in the world rankings?

Hardly, it has to be said. Without wishing to herald the new year in on a downbeat note, it's difficult to be anything else on either the Welsh or Newport Gwent Dragons front, despite yesterday's last-gasp win over the Scarlets.

Looking at the international front first, what is Warren Gatland coming back to this week? He's been celebrating Christmas and new year back home in New Zealand, but now comes the hard work.

Gatland has shown he's not afraid of that throughout his coaching career which has brought him success wherever he's been, whether with Ireland, Wasps or Waikato.

But this is a different ball game altogether. For a start, there's absolutely nothing in place and the first game against England at Twickenham, where Wales haven't won for 20 years, is little over a month away.

He hasn't even got a management team up and running and because of delays for one reason or another there has still been no announcement.

He wants former Wasps colleague Shaun Edwards as his defence coach, but Edwards has also been offered the job of running England Saxons and though it's not with the top team, Edwards is English after all.

But there is also the lure of being involved at full international level with Wales and the prospect of working with Gatland again after their highly successful spell with Wasps.

But though Edwards wanted the holiday period to think it all over there has still been no decision. And he is still under contract to Wasps who are lukewarm about letting him go, even on a part-time basis.

Gatland has also approached Rob Howley, another former colleague at Wasps, to be backs coach in the new Wales set-up, but Cardiff Blues also want that to be only part-time while Howley himself says he has heard nothing official.

Then there is the current Wales management team who were in charge throughout last season and the World Cup, plus the South Africa game in November after the dismissal of Gareth Jenkins.

What of them? Who is staying, who is leaving? We still don't know and the clock is still ticking.

And there has been the huge embarrassment to the WRU of Andrew Hore being snatched from under their noses by the Ospreys to be their elite performance director.

Hore had been lined up for the Wales post, now he's going to the most progressive region in the country while the WRU have still to fill the vacancy chief executive Roger Lewis first advertised around eight months ago.

Whether Gatland was able to watch any of the Welsh holiday derbies on video back home we don't know, but he will at least have been heartened by the successful return of number eight Ryan Jones after prolonged shoulder trouble.

But overall there remains so much to be done and at best time is getting very short, while at worst it could be too late already considering where England are in their preparations.

And the form of Newcastle trio Jonny Wilkinson, Matthew Tait and Toby Flood against Saracens on Sunday looked pretty scary from a Welsh perspective. It could be anything but a happy new year!

And what of the other Dragons, the Newport Gwent version? Dismay, disillusionment and disappointment seem to go hand in glove there, and it's hard not becoming inured to downright pessimism about their prospects.

The win over the Scarlets was thrilling and well-deserved but it's unlikely to herald a vintage 2008 for Paul Turner's men.

The Dragons are in a trough mainly of the making of those in charge.

Their lack of ambition, drive and inability to attract major new players is now thoroughly well documented, and lest the powers that be believe the stick is only being dished out in this column they ought to take a look elsewhere.

Only at the weekend a rival publication intervewing coach Turner highlighted a lack of vision by the Dragons, pleading for leadership.

Now the Dragons have been hit by massive injury problems to make things even worse, with the number of missing players running into double figures.

Richard Parks, Jamie Ringer, Rhodri Davies, Dan Lydiate, Jamie Corsi, Gareth Wyatt, Gareth Maule, Nic Fitisemanu and Lee Harrison have all been hit by major injuries, meaning an already under-sized, under-strength squad has been pretty much decimated.

Against that background the Dragons enter a new year which looks anything but bright for them! If only something - anything - could be done about team development.

A sign - that's all Dragons fans want to give them some hope going for the year ahead.