Rearing Dragons’ kids could be costly for Ryan

DEAN Ryan fears the Dragons may struggle to hold onto their young talent in the long run unless the WRU’s funding model is changed.

The Dragons have the lowest playing budget of the four professional sides in Wales, with the distribution of funding from the Professional Rugby Board (PRB) mainly based on how many players each side provides for the national side.

There were only five Dragons players in Wales’ Autumn Nations Cup squad, and despite having some of the best young players in Wales, director of rugby Ryan worries future wage inflation will make them difficult to retain.

“One of our biggest challenges is if we develop a player and make him better it requires more money to keep him, yet our ceiling doesn’t go up,” said the former Gloucester and Worcester coach.

“Until somebody changes the way money is distributed it won’t change. It’s a major challenge towards how grow people here because as people grow, they’ll require more reward.

“It’s a very difficult model because that line was drawn when the distribution model was drawn out, but things change. I haven’t got a money tree at Ystrad Mynach.”

The Dragons have some of the best young talent in Welsh rugby with Taine Basham, Josh Reynolds, and Aneurin Owen potential international stars of the future. But perhaps the biggest prospect is teenage second-row Ben Carter.

In his first PRO14 start against Glasgow last month the teenager made 31 out of an attempted 31 tackles during their victory at Scotstoun. And Ryan is confident the 19year-old has a huge future.

“I’m not surprised at how well Ben has taken to professional rugby, but I’m surprised how error free he’s been,” Ryan said.

“This is a lad who hadn’t played for nine months and then came in against Glasgow and didn’t put a foot wrong.

“That’s testament to how much work he does off the field and I think the lads got a huge future.”