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Over the past 18 months I was of the opinion that the media and Dragons fans were being somewhat harsh and a little bit impatient with Steve Price.
Now I am not so sure.
The fallout with Jamie Soward appears to have affected this thinking and has impacted the Dragons performances and chances of winning games.
Think about this. He has a backup dummy half playing halfback and an average centre playing five-eighth. In doing so, he has created the weakest halves pairing in the game.
He then has a reserve forward playing in the centres. He tends to talk about the Dragons’ execution being poor, however, he fails to see that his selections of players out of position has anything to do with this.
He has also mentioned that Josh Drinkwater needs to become more consistent to be considered for the top grade. Does he mean like Fien? Fien is a sharp and smart dummy half running, but he doesn’t have the game to be a week in week out success in the halfback role.
While Soward’s form over the past two years has been down, there are many contributing factors to this, like the absence of an experienced quality halfback in Hornby, a creative backrower in Young and the physical presence that players like Scott and Cooper use to provide.
However, he remained the main creative player in the Dragons, still being able to put Morris in for tries with cut-out passes and providing tries via his short kicking game.
When Dugan signed with the Dragons I thought, great, another attacking option for the Dragons. He was supposed to complement Soward, not replace him as the Dragons main attacking option.
The Dragons won last week against Newcastle not because of Soward’s absence, but in spite of it.
Dugan’s sheer physical ability got them home, and the lack of creativity in the halves was overlooked.
In last night’s game, Dugan couldn’t get the Dragons home alone, despite the Dragons being camped inside the Cowboys’ 20 metre line for the last 10 minutes.
Soward’s kicking ability alone would have been invaluable last night, particularly in the second half when they had the use of the wind.
If indeed, Price doesn’t play Soward again this year he will continue to put too much reliance on our weak halves pairing and physically and emotionally exhaust the gifts of Dugan.
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