The former Gloucester and Worcester director of rugby says it is the chance to build something that will last that lured him to Newport

Dean Ryan will be back in a tracksuit in July when he takes charge of the Dragons in Gwent having spent the past three years working for the Rugby Football Union and there are two things about the English club system the former director of rugby at Gloucester and Worcester will not miss: relegation and meddling owners.

Ryan has been the head of the RFU’s international player development since leaving the Warriors in 2016 and the reason he was tempted back into coaching was the position created for him by the Dragons: director of rugby with a seat on the board, responsible for all rugby matters on and off the pitch as the region looks to build success after two decades of mediocrity.

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“I have never hidden the fact that I missed competing, something I had done all my life, but equally I had made clear my frustration when trying to strategically build a club being at loggerheads with people on boards and, especially, owners,” said Ryan. “I would not have gone back to just the tracksuit.

“David Buttress [the Dragons’ chairman] looks at it differently and that got me excited. I recognise the scale of the challenge, but by being in the right environment and forums to talk, it will be down to me and that is all I can ask for. When you are building a club, if you leave rugby in isolation all you do is make a coach look for success to gain another contract. If you judge someone on two years, his decisions will be based on what happens in the next 18 months.

“They are quite often not the right ones. It should be about getting the club right in four or five years, looking at areas like recruitment and the academy. If you just think about the rugby, you will fail. You have to go through pain and with the Dragons getting less funding than the other three regions in Wales, we have to be very clear where we are going.”

Ryan starts work on 1 July, but he will be liaising with the region before then. He is unlikely to be able to bring in new players, because of the late timing as much as budgetary constraints, but he will be able to change the way the region is run in a number of areas and lay a foundation having signed a long-term contract.

“The aim is to build something strong and sustainable and get the region [which is owned by the Welsh Rugby Union] back into private hands,” said Ryan. “It is an exciting prospect and I will learn a lot being part of a system that does not have a stakeholder like Premiership Rugby and the fact that there is no relegation is key for a side operating with a restrictive budget, allowing you more freedom to develop.”

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Wales will have a new head coach in Wayne Pivac after the World Cup. He replaces Warren Gatland who has enjoyed considerable success in his 12 years in charge, but after Shaun Edwards’s decision to turn down a new contract to stay on as defence coach, only Neil Jenkins will remain of the current management.

“We had productive talks with Shaun but could not get it over the line,” said Pivac. “It was an individual choice and probably a financial one. The Wales team has grown excitingly in the last 18 months and we will see whether we can add value, making sure we do not rip it apart because it is not broken.”