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From being unemployed and training alone to earning a new contract
By Liam Heagney
Steff Hughes has gone from being an unemployed rugby player to becoming a key part of the Dragons set-up under Dai Flanagan in the space of just 10 months. It was at the end of the 2021/22 season when the midfielder was released by Scarlets after falling down the pecking order under Dwayne Peel.
That left him out of work and training on his own in the hope that a lifeline would emerge. It did, a short-deal term in October as injury cover taking him to Rodney Parade and his efforts since then have now been rewarded with an unspecified length, long-term contract that will keep him at Dragons.
A statement read: “Dragons are delighted to announce star centre Steff Hughes has signed a new long-term contract with the club. Hughes – who has made 17 senior appearances and scored two tries since joining the club on a short-term deal in October – has made a huge impact at Rodney Parade this season.
“The experienced 29-year-old has captained the club and has led from the front as a key figure in the back division under head coach Dai Flanagan. Carmarthen-born Hughes – who joined Dragons following nine years at the Scarlets, where he made over 100 appearances for the West Walians – is the latest key senior player to sign new terms.
“Harri Keddie, Ollie Griffiths, Ashton Hewitt, Jack Dixon, Elliot Dee, Joe Davies, Lloyd Fairbrother, Matthew Screech and Jared Rosser are among those to sign new contracts in recent weeks.”
Flanagan said: “Steff is a key figure within our squad, a player who sets the standards and who wants to really push this club forward. His behaviours are exceptional and young players like Aneurin Owen and Will Reed will only get better with people like Steff in the building.
“Steff is very aware of the role he can play here. I know the satisfaction he takes from seeing the development of players like Joe Roberts, Ryan Conbeer and Tom Rogers at Scarlets and we feel he can have the same impact here.”
Hughes added: “I’m absolutely delighted to have signed for another few years at Dragons RFC. I’m really enjoying working with some great people at the club and firmly believe we have an exciting period to look forward to ahead of us all.
“I’d also like to thank the supporters at Dragons who have welcomed me with open arms since my arrival and for their continued backing. I have really enjoyed the experience of playing at Rodney Parade and I’m already looking forward to getting back next season and doing all I can to give our fans the performances and results they richly deserve.”
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Like 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?
Go to commentsYou always get idiots who go overboard. What else is new? I ignore them. Why bother?
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