Dai Flanagan and Sam Hobbs take the lead with Dragons' defence

The Rodney Parade club were set to stick the same management team for 2023/24 but that changed at the start of pre-season when Simon Cross was approached to become head coach of Old Glory DC in America.

The defence coach took up the challenge of a top job in Major League Rugby, leaving the Dragons with a vacancy.

The rugby detail is gradually being introduced to pre-season training ahead of the October 21 United Rugby Championship opener against Edinburgh.

Head coach Flanagan is taking a more hands-on role with defence and as things stand is unlikely to have much budget room to make a permanent replacement for Cross.

Simon Cross (right) with Dragons head coach Dai Flanagan (Image: Huw Evans Agency)

“It’s great to see people progress and this is an exciting new challenge for Simon but it came out of the blue,” said Flanagan.

“I have been getting my head around things and how we cut our cloth with whatever money we have available.

“I have a natural bias to attack but as a head coach I must oversee the whole game and the buck will stop with me on both sides of the ball.

“This situation gives me more responsibility with defence and we must figure out what direction we want to go in, and finance obviously has a say in that because good defence coaches are not cheap.

“You never know what could pop up after the World Cup but it’s a balancing act because of our budget.”

Flanagan has three assistants with specific areas of responsibility Mefin Davies (forwards, scrum), Luke Narraway (forwards, lineout) and Matt O’Brien (backs) and they have been joined by Hobbs this summer.

The academy head coach, who is also a member of Ty Morris’ back room staff at Newport RFC, has been helping out the seniors.

Former loosehead Hobbs, from Brecon, made 42 appearances for the Dragons between 2016 and 2018 after arriving from Cardiff.

INFLUENTIAL: Sam Hobbs is part of the Newport RFC coaching team (Image: Huw Evans Agency)

“We have some talented coaches in our academy and Sam has been superb when stepping into the role to deliver some contact training,” said Flanagan.

“I can’t emphasise enough how good he has been with tackle technique and contact area stuff, he is bringing such detail, but he still has his job to do with the academy and we can’t spread him too thin.

“All the references out of Newport have also said how good he is as a coach, so let’s see what he can do.”

Flanagan will also be leaning on his players to come up with ideas and plans.

“When you have Steff Hughes and Dan Lydiate in your squad, you have two of the best defensive minds in Welsh rugby,” said the head coach. “I am fortunate to learn from them as well and that’s how we will evolve together.”