Prop Buck determined to prove a point to his critics

8:30am Thursday 1st November 2012 in Sport Photograph of the Author By Chris Kirwan

POSITIVE: Nathan Buck POSITIVE: Nathan Buck

GLASGOW v DRAGONS (Tomorrow, KO 7.30)

NEWPORT Gwent Dragons tighthead Nathan Buck is attempting to block out the critics that are touting others for his job – and save the region some dosh in the process.

There are plenty of theories about what is behind the Rodney Parade region’s miserable start to the season.

And a common gripe is a perceived lack of grunt up front following precious little investment on the tight five over the summer.

Given that prime tightheads Buck and Dan Way are both incredibly young in propping years, it is understandable that many would like to see a seasoned campaigner added to the Dragons’ roster to shoulder some of the burden and aid their development.

But 23-year-old Buck, who penned a three-season deal in the summer, is hopeful that he can prove his doubters wrong.

“It is hard to read sometimes when people say that they want to bring in a new tighthead,” said the prop from Gilwern.

“But I just have to get on with it, try to silence a few people and save the region a bit of money hopefully!

“I just want to keep developing as a prop and show what I can do because I feel a lot more confident in my scrummaging and feel that I know a lot more thanks to Iestyn (Thomas, set piece coach).”

Former Wales loosehead Thomas joined the Dragons in the summer after he was forced to retire because of a neck injury.

Buck believes that the 35-year-old from Pontypool is making great strides after succeeding ex-forwards coach Danny Wilson.

He said: “I’m sure Iestyn is itching to get involved in the sessions and I bet he would still be pretty tasty if he could!

“This time last season he was in the scrum himself and knows what tightheads have done to him through the years at the Scarlets and with Wales.

“I believe that our scrum is getting better week by week and that he is doing a lot of good work with us.

“We did a lot of live scrums last year but I think it’s a bit more technical now and Iestyn is working hard on our profiles.”

The pack face another test of their scrummaging credentials when they travel to high-flying Glasgow tomorrow. The Scottish side are third in the table and are chasing their sixth Pro12 win on the spin.

“They’ve got a very good set piece that went well against Ulster in the Heineken Cup,” said Buck.

“Glasgow is a hard place to go even though they have a fair few players away with Scotland.”

Comments(23)

monkeytennisboy says...
12:18pm Thu 1 Nov 12

If he can turn his first half performance into something that lasts 80 he will have a chance, was pretty bright in the first 30 minutes against ulster but then seemed to run out of steam.

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Robert Shillabeer says...
1:05pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Still learning and with the master of what could be called the black arts hopefully he can develop into a solid player. There is no doubt that all the Dragons squad are doing thier best to be effective and only time will tell how good they can be. The scrum is the base on which any team must build and hopefully over the coming few matches the training will bear fruit and perhaps they will learn a few black arts of thier own.

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Monster Munch McCoy says...
1:11pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Robert Shillabeer wrote:
Still learning and with the master of what could be called the black arts hopefully he can develop into a solid player. There is no doubt that all the Dragons squad are doing thier best to be effective and only time will tell how good they can be. The scrum is the base on which any team must build and hopefully over the coming few matches the training will bear fruit and perhaps they will learn a few black arts of thier own.
And if they don't improve in the next few matches. What should we change Rob?

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monkeytennisboy says...
2:11pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Rob s is DE in disguise, hope he is going to open a shop because he must have thousands of pairs of rose coloured glasses to seell.

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monkeytennisboy says...
2:23pm Thu 1 Nov 12

And before you have me for slating the team again, i actually think we will be competitive this week against a much weakened through injury and international call ups glasgow side, i hope the weathers poor which will help, and i hope they finally start making sensible on field decisions as our lack of a rugby brain is ultimately our downfall on the few occasions where we do put ourselves in contention, i have made decent money this season opposing the dragons at the bookies, but friday im switching to backing us.

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SWBorderer says...
3:01pm Thu 1 Nov 12

I don't criticise the amount of effort being put in, and I agree that there is some promising talent in the front row, what we have needed for a long time is a strong scrummaging old head to take the pressure off the youngsters and allow them to develop. You don't learn by being mullered every week, you just get disheartened and your performance drops off.

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Robert Shillabeer says...
3:41pm Thu 1 Nov 12

No not DE in disguise, real person who tends to look at things with a little independence of thought than most posters too date. I Know how hard it is to please everyone all the time so allow some leeway and hope things will improve given more effort and willingness to learn from others who have been there and done it. Remember the Dragons are a young team and must learn from the senior players as well as the coaching team. Cut them some slack as they would like to win every ame if they could.

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monkeytennisboy says...
3:44pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Looking at the teamsheets for tomorrow nights game between, cardiff / munster this game takes on huge proportions, theres little chance of cardiff getting a result so the points in glasgow would leave us right up with the blues who have plenty of problems of their own, perhaps that last heineken cup place isnt cut and dried just yet, but opportunities like playing a weakened side as opposition, even if it is at their place must be converted into points, if they cant get up for this game they never will.

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Robert Shillabeer says...
3:47pm Thu 1 Nov 12

No not DE in disguise, real person who tends to look at things with a little independence of thought than most posters too date. I Know how hard it is to please everyone all the time so allow some leeway and hope things will improve given more effort and willingness to learn from others who have been there and done it. Remember the Dragons are a young team and must learn from the senior players as well as the coaching team. Cut them some slack as they would like to win every ame if they could.

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high x boy says...
3:50pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Glasgow have 11 international players from their team.

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Robert Shillabeer says...
3:52pm Thu 1 Nov 12

monkeytennisboy wrote:
Looking at the teamsheets for tomorrow nights game between, cardiff / munster this game takes on huge proportions, theres little chance of cardiff getting a result so the points in glasgow would leave us right up with the blues who have plenty of problems of their own, perhaps that last heineken cup place isnt cut and dried just yet, but opportunities like playing a weakened side as opposition, even if it is at their place must be converted into points, if they cant get up for this game they never will.
You are right, this is a vey good chance which we can't afford to turn down. A win would put us very close to the Blues who should lose to a very strong Munster side, but who knows, just continue to support the Dragons and hope everything clicks into place.

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SWBorderer says...
5:24pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Robert it can only click into place if you can play to a game plan. You can only do that with a solid platform to work from, it's a simple game, if you've got the ball you're the only team that can score.

We have the talent to convert that platform into points, so what has stopped us ? Quite simply the failure of the people in charge to recognise the problem and commit money to sorting it out instead of wasting it on players who are never going to contribute anything worthwhile to the team.

I and others accept that they work hard, I also recognise that they don't enjoy losing, but if those who pay to watch can see that the problems lie with the vision and ability of the people in charge of the team, they have every right to criticise.

I would love them to win in Glasgow, but to believe a victory there would suddenly put everything right would be living in fantasy land. Darren may well be suited to a specialist coaching position, I doubt if Appleyard is, but we need a head coach who is able to see the bigger picture and organise the whole setup.

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Robert Shillabeer says...
6:00pm Thu 1 Nov 12

SWborderer Rome wasn't built in a day, no doubt there will be some gloom merchants disagreeing with me though. The squad is made up of some very exiting youngsters who need to learn a bit more about turning good play into winning play. The game against Glasgow is an opportunity to get a very big bost to the moral of the side and looking at the squad for Friday it has the look of a fighting side which hopefully can get a win away from home.

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Welshman76 says...
6:58pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Robert Shillabeer wrote:
No not DE in disguise, real person who tends to look at things with a little independence of thought than most posters too date. I Know how hard it is to please everyone all the time so allow some leeway and hope things will improve given more effort and willingness to learn from others who have been there and done it. Remember the Dragons are a young team and must learn from the senior players as well as the coaching team. Cut them some slack as they would like to win every ame if they could.
Just who are our senior players? Most of our team are youngsters.

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Robert Shillabeer says...
7:48pm Thu 1 Nov 12

You obviously don't read much about the squad, Tom Brown 29, Tonderai Chavhanga 28, Andrew Coombes 28, Wayne Evans 28, Adam Jones 32, Steve Jones 35, Pat Leach 27 , Ian Nimmo 27 , Tim Ryan 28 , and Rob Sidoli 33 , all with a very long time in the game and must be able to pass on quite some experience to the younger guys. But, maybe that won't fit the views of some supporters.

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monkeytennisboy says...
7:53pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Im sure Sid is trying to help, but most of the others are not qualified to be giving advice as they are underachievers themselves.

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Robert Shillabeer says...
8:16pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Any help and tips from senior players is nothing to do with qualifications it's about experience. They have all been there and any tips and encouragement are worth years on the training pitch. Apprentices are trained through a mix of working with experienced people and going to tech, blending that knowledge into practical experience.

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emlynkide says...
10:15pm Thu 1 Nov 12

just a couple of points, its not ago that when edwards came on the sceen to replace paul turner, d.e. was the best thing since sliced bread, i know results are not ideal, and we,ve got fickle fans but you,ve got to work to your budget, if this means being patiant with bringin on youngsters so be it, my experiance with youngsters is throwing them in at the deepend is the best way for them to get experience more quicker than to watch there peeres from the sidelines,the worst thing you can do is keep critisising young people, reading in between the lines on nathan bucks comment, the pressure of critisising is allready getting to the young players, so come on and give them some much needed back slapping it works wonders, also most forwards hit there peek between 25/28,

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Robert Shillabeer says...
11:43pm Thu 1 Nov 12

emlynkide wrote:
just a couple of points, its not ago that when edwards came on the sceen to replace paul turner, d.e. was the best thing since sliced bread, i know results are not ideal, and we,ve got fickle fans but you,ve got to work to your budget, if this means being patiant with bringin on youngsters so be it, my experiance with youngsters is throwing them in at the deepend is the best way for them to get experience more quicker than to watch there peeres from the sidelines,the worst thing you can do is keep critisising young people, reading in between the lines on nathan bucks comment, the pressure of critisising is allready getting to the young players, so come on and give them some much needed back slapping it works wonders, also most forwards hit there peek between 25/28,
Quite right, stop knocking the region simply because things don't go the right way. The Blues are going through a bad patch as well or didn't you notice.

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East Newport Dave says...
6:00am Fri 2 Nov 12

Emlynkide and Rob are right to a degree. Nathan is a local boy and I would love him to do well. Yes, he is still young but at 23 we need to know whether he is up to the job. He is a paid professional and if the job you do is not good enough...........
Let's see what you can do. Are you up to the job?

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SWBorderer says...
9:49am Fri 2 Nov 12

What concerns me is that there are tremendous physical pressures on the body of a prop forward, to have a situation where we rely so heavily on a group of young men when we know that the optimum time for a prop to mature is late twenties or early thirties.
If we had gone for some experienced bulk a couple of years ago we would have given these youngsters the breathing space to develop their game by being used as subs in the last third of the game when they are either up against tiring first choice props or substitutes.
Why am I classed as disloyal just because I want the team to play to it's potential. I believe the players we have are capable of producing better results once we have a coaching and management team that can work out a better game plan than "Try something".

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Robert Shillabeer says...
10:35am Fri 2 Nov 12

SWBorderer no one is saying you lack loyalty, you live away in England and still watch the Dragons whenever you can. I know a chap who works in the middle east and comes to Dragons games every time he is home, so there is no charge of disloyalty from me. Your opinion that we should have got some experienced props etc some years ago is probably right, but we didn't so we must live with the here and now and encourage the younger guys to raise thier game and get to that proficient point time and time again. The coaching staff are very much aware no doubt of the problems and I'm sure are trying to get the problems sorted and get the team winning matches as they won't want to be seen as losers for ever.

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monkeytennisboy says...
11:44am Fri 2 Nov 12

The coaching staff are very much aware no doubt of the problems and I'm sure are trying to get the problems sorted and get the team winning matches as they won't want to be seen as losers for ever.

Unfortunately that will be exactly how they are seen as these are not new problems, they simply lack the depth and quality of coaching and management to sort the teams issues out, its well past time to give them the boot and find someone with the capacity to get results with what we have, these boys are not up to it.
That said i feel we will win tonight, but it in no way will solve our problems upstairs, but may instill a little bit of confidence in the team.

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