Dragons sign Bradley Roberts four days after Hibbard retirement
New Wales hooker Bradley Roberts will join Dragons from Ulster for the 2022/23 season, the 26-year-old South African-born forward believing that being based at one of the Welsh regions will enhance his Test level selection prospects in the long term.
The 26-year-old Roberts, who qualifies for Wales via his paternal grandmother from Ceredigion, made his Test debut during the Autumn Nations Series earlier this season and the new Dragons recruit is now in the Wales Guinness Six Nations squad currently preparing to face Ireland in a tournament opener.
From Durban, Roberts made his debut off the bench versus his native South Africa when Wayne Pivac turned to the Ulster player to help solve the injury crisis that affected his team for the November campaign.
Having spent a season with RGC in the Welsh Premiership, Roberts made a November 2020 Ulster debut for Dan McFarland’s Irish side and he has now played with them on a dozen occasions, his efforts catching the eye of the Dragons who have a hooker berth to fill on their roster following last week’s retirement with immediate effect of veteran Richard Hibbard because of injury.
“I’m really excited by the challenge ahead of me,” said Roberts, who will be released back to Ulster for some URC game time before rejoining the Wales squad ahead of their February 5 match in Ireland.
“It’s a new opportunity and after only a few seasons at this level, I’m determined to keep moving forward. I spoke to Dean (Ryan) about the Dragons and it’s a young group that is building for the future. I’m eager to add to that and be a part of that journey. The move to Dragons means I can also keep pushing to be part of the Wales set-up.
“I have only just started with that and I want to add to those experiences. I’m looking forward to linking up with the Dragons but for now, my focus remains on Ulster, the next few months with Wales and a strong end to this season.”
Dragons boss Ryan added: “We are really pleased that Bradley will join us and that he sees Dragons as the right environment for him to keep improving. Bradley obviously has international aspirations as he makes the return to Wales and we look forward to him competing for selection from next season.”
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Sophie De Goede is one of the best players we’ve ever produced. Kicked all the points, 2 try assists, line out takes, carries, tackles, charge downs… what a player
Go to commentsThe guy had just beasted himself in a scrum and the blood hadn't yet returned to his head when he was pushed into a team mate. He took his weight off his left foot precisely at the moment he was shoved and dropped to the floor when seemingly trying to avoid stepping on Hyron Andrews’ foot. I don't think he was trying to milk a penalty, I think he was knackered but still switched on enough to avoid planting 120kgs on the dorsum of his second row’s foot. To effectively “police” such incidents with a (noble) view to eradicating play acting in rugby, yet more video would need to be reviewed in real time, which is not in the interest of the game as a sporting spectacle. I would far rather see Farrell penalised for interfering with the refereeing of the game. Perhaps he was right to be frustrated, he was much closer to the action than the only camera angle I've seen, however his vocal objection to Rodd’s falling over doesn't legitimately fall into the captain's role as the mouthpiece of his team - he should have kept his frustration to himself, that's one of the pillars of rugby union. I appreciate that he was within his rights to communicate with the referee as captain but he didn't do this, he moaned and attempted to sway the decision by directing his complaint to the player rather than the ref. Rugby needs to look closely at the message it wants to send to young players and amateur grassroots rugby. The best way to do this would be to apply the laws as they are written and edit them where the written laws no longer apply. If this means deleting laws such as ‘the put in to the scrum must be straight”, so be it. Likewise, if it is no longer necessary to respect the referee’s decision without questioning it or pre-emptively attempting to sway it (including by diving or by shouting and gesticulating) then this behaviour should be embraced (and commercialised). Otherwise any reference to respecting the referee should be deleted from the laws. You have to start somewhere to maintain the values of rugby and the best place to start would be giving a penalty and a warning against the offending player, followed by a yellow card the next time. People like Farrell would rapidly learn to keep quiet and let their skills do the talking.
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