Player departures and squad updates

Ebbw Vale RFC can confirm that the following 2 players are leaving the Steelmen for pastures new and all at the club would like to thank them for their excellent service and wish them all the best for the future.

Scrum Half Dai Jones leaves the Steelmen after 10 seasons with only the brief interruption of a short stay at Bedwas during this period. Dai was signed by Neil Edwards and was a key man in the winning of two Division 1 titles and two Championship titles, as well as being an active member of the squad that returned to the Premiership. Dai will be missed within the squad and the Ebbw Addicts due to his approachability and character. At this point, he has not made a decision around his future rugby career.

The second departure is that of Dai Langdon who has played at 10 and 12 for the club with great distinction. He returned to the Steelmen, who he’d represented as an 18 year old Dragons Academy player, from Neath RFC where he had spent a number of seasons. Dai was the outside half who in fierce competition for the number 10 shirt guided Ebbw Vale to success in the title winning 2016 Premiership campaign. Dai will be returning to Neath RFC as they look to put pressure on last year’s Championship front runners Pontypool and Bargoed and will add his undoubted skills and experience to the Gnoll. Dai is another who has been very popular within the squad and amongst the Ebbw Addicts and we wish him the best of luck in guiding Neath in their title challenge.

The other updates at this point are as follows:

Scrum half Sam Ireland, after sustaining a nasty concussion playing as a centre replacement in the heavy defeat in the National Cup tie at Cardiff in early November, is making progress and for the first time has been able to increase his training workload over the last 6 weeks. Sam will join the squad whenever pre season training starts and will be assessed by the club’s medical team through the training period to ensure it is safe for him to return to Indigo Premiership rugby. All at the club will be pleaseD to see this skilful and likeable player successfully return to rugby.

Head Coach Greg Woods has started tentative discussions with the Dragons Academy, so He and his coaching team have an outline of the likely available players from our Regional partners. Once the the current Covid restrictions are lifted, and all are back in their roles, the discussions will be advanced further.

The Steelmen recruitment team still have an eye on players becoming available and may add to the current squad should the correct quality of player become available. There is also a group of 8/10 young players who have been invited to pre season training by the coaching group and we are looking forward to welcoming them to the club as soon as it is safe and appropriate.