There won’t be a dry eye in the house when Aaron Wainwright bids farewell to Rodney Parade in his 100th BKT United Rugby Championship appearance for the Dragons against Edinburgh tonight (Saturday 9 May – 7.45pm). The Wales back row ace has given sterling service to his home region over the past nine seasons to […]
There won’t be a dry eye in the house when Aaron Wainwright bids farewell to Rodney Parade in his 100th BKT United Rugby Championship appearance for the Dragons against Edinburgh tonight (Saturday 9 May – 7.45pm).
The Wales back row ace has given sterling service to his home region over the past nine seasons to earn legendary status with the ‘Men of Gwent’. He will join Leicester Tigers in the summer.
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Having made his debut for the Dragons as a replacement in a derby clash with Cardiff Blues in October 2017 he has gone on to make 136 appearances to date for the region, scoring 20 tries. He has also won all of his 67 Welsh caps from the region.
When news of his departure was announced in January, Wainwright admitted that “playing at Rodney Parade will always mean the world to me” and praised the Dragons for being “a special club”. Signing off with a win over Edinburgh, who are only two places above them in the table and are out of the hunt for a play-off place, would be the perfect send-off.
Head coach Filo Tiatia has made six changes to the starting XV that were beaten in Montpellier in last weekend’s EPCR Challenge Cup semi-final. Harrison Keddie comes into the back row to join Wainwright and Thomas Young, while Seb Davies joins co-captain Ben Carter in the second row and Dillon Lewis and Brodie Coughlan are recalled in the front row.
Behind the scrum, Rhodri Williams returns at scrum ahlf and Jared Rosser comes in on the wing. Ryan Woodman will make his 50th appearance for the regions when he comes off the replacements bench.
“There is a lot of disappointment last week. We left a lot of points out there and it was a could have- should have sort of game,” said Tiatia.
“There are a lot of milestones to celebrate in our final home game against Edinburgh, and we have the Scarlets after that. We want to finish strong, not just for the group but for our fans as well.
“We’ve got to keep going and it’s important to us how we front up. We need to put in a performance and really celebrate with a scrap at home.
“Edinburgh will pose a stern test. They have a lot of international players in their squad so we are looking forward to them coming down on what will be a big night for us in front of our supporters.”
TEAMS
Dragons RFC: Angus O’Brien (co-captain); Jared Rosser, Fine Inisi, Aneurin Owen, Rio Dyer; Tinus de Beer, Rhodri Williams; Rodrigo Martinez, Brodie Coghlan, Dillon Lewis, Seb Davies, Ben Carter (co-captain), Harrison Keddie, Thomas Young, Aaron Wainwright
Reps: Elliot Dee, Rhodri Jones, Chris Coleman, Matthew Screech, Ryan Woodman, Niall Armstrong, Harri Ackerman, Huw AndersonEdinburgh: Harry Paterson; Darcy Graham, Mosese Tuipulotu, Findlay Thomson, Duhan van der Merwe; Ross Thompson, Hector Patterson; Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, Callum Hunter-Hill, Grant Gilchrist (captain), Glen Young, Freddy Douglas, Tom Currie
Reps: Dylan Richardson, Boan Venter, Paul Hill, Marshall Sykes, Liam McConnell, Magnus Bradbury, Charlie Shiel, Piers O’ConorReferee: Filippo Russo (Italy)