At any point in a player’s development a player can be assessed through the PPA methodology as having the attributes to play professional rugby for the Dragons. At this point the player will be formally contracted to the Dragons Senior Squad and will enter the Senior Academy. This will traditionally happen after the players two year development programme in the Junior Academy and once it has been established that they can deal with the demands of senior rugby.
In the Senior Academy the players will follow the same six elements of the Junior Academy Programme but the training will be more intense as training groups will be smaller and there will be a higher concentration of better players. Usually the Senior Academy players will train with the Dragons Senior Squad through the summer and once they go back to University will attend a mixture of Senior Squad and Academy training depending on their educational commitments and where they are in their development.
The players in the Senior Academy will play for one of the Dragon’s semi-professional feeder clubs in the Principality Premiership or the newly formed Principality Championship.
All of the Senior Academy Players are heavily encouraged to stay in full / part time education or follow a vocational interest. To enable them to make informed choices about their education or secondary vocation, the players have access to a Performance Lifestyle Manager who is qualified and on hand to answer any questions and deal with any queries.
The Dragons Academy have a proud tradition of developing players for the Dragons Senior Team and for Wales National Age Grade Teams. .
Dragons Academy Roll of Honour
Here is a list of Academy players that went on to represent the Dragons:
Jack Dixon (Wales U18, U20)
Hallam Amos (Wales U18s)
Ieuan Jones (Wales U18, U20s)
Toby Faletau (Wales U20)
Dan Lydiate (Wales U20, Wales)
Jonathan Evans (Wales U18, U20)
Aaron Coundley (Wales U18, U20)
Adam Hughes (Wales U18, U20)
Lewis Robling (Wales U18)
Ashley Smith (Wales U18, U20)
Dan Watchurst (Wales U18s, U20 captain)
Adam Brown (Wales U20)
Lewis Evans (Wales U20 captain)
James Harris (Wales U20)
James Thomas (Wales U18 captain, Wales U20 captain)
Rhys Jenkins (Wales U18, U20)
James Leadbeater (Wales U20)
Jason Tovey (Wales U18, U20)
Matthew Pewtner (Wales U20)
