It’s January and it’s the return of one thing.
No, we don’t mean The Traitors on BBC or even the usual merry-go-round of who HAS TO/should/shouldn’t/couldn’t/NO WAY be in Wales’ Six Nations squad.
But rather the start of WRU’s 2025 Regional Age Grade Championships.
However, what exactly is the RAG competition?
“The RAG programme is our regional age grade programme,” said Academy Coach Adam Thomas, who will lead on the attack and backs within the U18s programme.
“The programme goes over the whole season with two blocks. First block is a summer block looking at a first contact with them throughout the season with a couple of friendlies and they bounce into the college program club programme throughout September to end of November.
“Then they come back into us, for our competition block, we would have them from start of December to mid-February where they get to play against the Ospreys, Cardiff, Scarlets and North Wales, and then obviously within that competition block there's a winner.”
That is where we stand currently. Dragons begin their campaign on Sunday, at home to Ospreys U18s at Ystrad Mynach with kick off set for 5pm after Gwalia Lightning’s game in the Celtic Challenge.
“It’s been a long time coming for us as coaches in particular, but the boys have prepped well all season, to be fair,” said Thomas. “We've really hammered home fundamentals throughout the season. That work rate is massive for us."
“We banged on about that from the summer block in pre-season where they really worked hard and then throughout that time frame where they were with their colleges doing the majority of their rugby.
“I think that's probably one of our areas we’re going to go after is just nailing those fundamentals and hopefully with our workrate element that’ll put us in good stead really into the competition.
“I think they took the learnings and their hard work from the pre-season into their college rugby, which was obviously important to put their hands up, not only for the Dragons but also for their colleges.
“They had a really good season in terms of Newport High School and Coleg Gwent, both going into that final of the second division and really good performances throughout as well.
“I think it's going to be an interesting competition this year.”
Anyone wondering the importance of these camps in preparing our young Dragons, need only look at the recent rise to senior debuts of teenage pair Nick Thomas and Evan Minto.
Last year Minto was representing Dragons at this level, now he has spent time training with the senior group and came off the bench to join the likes of Dan Lydiate and Aaron Wainwright in a formidable back row.
“I think if you look back at last year in particular, it was quite disappointing in terms of results, but I think in terms of learnings for those boys who were particularly year one last year, will now come into their second year as part of this squad,” said Thomas.
“I think they'll get the benefits of that exposure last year and hopefully we'll bring those first-year boys coming this year up to their standards.
“We talked about it a lot in terms of our journey from being a first year, whether you're 15, 16, coming into the program and you might not play as much as you want, but we know there's potential and, kicking on into that second year and going forward into senior rugby.
“I think perseverance within that will show through. The likes of Evan Minto, for instance, decent year last year with the eighteens programme and has built on that probably disappointment of not getting the Wales 18s at the end of the second year.
“All of a sudden now, he’s had a really good summer, trained really well with within the first team environment, had his first team debut and is in the under 20 squad and I think like those types of journeys are important.
“As coaches, coaching staff and staff, we have a responsibility to give the best programme for these boys to experience in order for them to represent Dragons, exposing as many boys as we can and then hopefully getting a big cohort of those boys through to represent Dragons in the future.”
The carrot of Dragons recognition is an exciting one, as are the hopes of international recognition with Wales U18s in April.
“Wales camps have been ongoing since before Christmas,” said Thomas. “There's a handful of boys within our region already part of that.”
“The goal is for them to get their 18s cap and it would be brilliant for them.
“At the moment the picture now is for the boys to play RAG and perform well, but no doubt in some of those boys minds you've got the bigger picture stuff for that 18s Six Nations festival in April.
“Having coached there two years ago it’s a great opportunity for those boys to experience the level they need to be at because it's the best of the best, really at under 18s, for them in order to kick on.”
As coaches, coaching staff and staff, we have a responsibility to give the best programme for these boys to experience in order for them to represent Dragons, exposing as many boys as we can and then hopefully getting a big cohort of those boys through to represent Dragons in the future...
