A New Identity - Newport and Gwent Dragons

By Dai
August 24 2003

Just as we thought the problems amongst the regions had gone we get the news that Marcus Russell has resigned from the Gwent Dragons Board of Directors and as a result, there will be a change of name. For more on this story read on.

Just as we thought everything was sorted with the 5 regional teams in Wales we get the news that the name of the Gwent Dragons are set to change their name. The name of the team will now be Newport and Gwent Dragons and the change of name has come about as a result of Marcus Russell's resignation from the board of directors.

Russell, the owner of Ebbw Vale R.F.C resigned from the board sighting the constant opposition from the Newport board to Gwent Rugby Limited's plans and the poor season ticket sales for the new regional team as the main reasons for his resignation.

This is not the first time that Gwent has had problems adapting to regional rugby. Newport backer Tony Brown resigned from the board a few weeks ago and vowed not to back the regional team and since the name Gwent was chosen for the team there was widespread opposition from Newport fans who put together a petition containing more than 10000 signatures which demanded that Newport is in the title of the regional team name.

Earlier this week, the Dragons announced that there was a possibility of the name being changed at the end of the current season but owing to the recent resignation of Russell, the name will now be changed by the weekend.

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