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Dragons lock down 1-cap Welsh international Ollie Griffiths
By Online Editors
Dynamic back row Ollie Griffiths has committed his future to Dragons by signing a contract extension with the region.
Griffiths (6'1, 100kg) has made 70 appearances for the Dragons – scoring four tries - and has played four games this season.
A product of the Dragons Academy, the Newbridge-born 24-year-old made his debut for the Dragons against Ulster in 2014.
In May 2017 Griffiths was selected for Wales' summer tour of Samoa and Tonga. Most recently, he has since played for Wales against the Barbarians.
Director of Dragons Rugby, Dean Ryan, said: "Extending Ollie's contract with us is a big boost as he forms an important part of our group. He is committed to what we are trying to achieve in the region.
"He is an example of a local rugby player who came into our Academy, worked hard, and ultimately has gone on to represent both his home region and nation.
"We are looking forward to continue working with him and I am sure the crowds that come to watch the Dragons will be pleased to see him staying with us.”
Griffiths said: “I feel we are building something really good at the Dragons and the progress we have made in the last six months made the decision easy for me.
“I’m excited for the future and look forward to seeing us repay our fans for their loyal support and sticking by us through some difficult times in the past.
“The Dragons is definitely the best place for me to continue my development,” he added.
“Playing for my local region every week, with players I have come through the Academy ranks with, makes it a special place for me."
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Latest Comments
Well that sux.
Go to commentsLike I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
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