For Dragons CEO Rhys Blumberg, and the other chiefs of the four Welsh regions, the uncertainty surrounding each of their futures is an obvious obstacle to progress.

In an exclusive interview with Sportin Wales, Blumberg talks through the WRU’s plans from a regional perspective, and about the development of the Dragons on and off the pitch since his appointment in 2024.

While the WRU is yet to reveal their plans for how their vision of a three-team future will come about, Blumberg is trying to build a club in Gwent that looks and feels impossible to cut.

“As it stands today, the union are being very clear that they can only fund three teams after 2028,” he says.

“What’s not clear at this point is who those three teams are.”

In that insecurity, Dragons are trying to do two things at once: win more rugby matches and convince the game’s powerbrokers that professional rugby in the east is non‑negotiable.

When Richard Collier-Keywood addressed the Welsh media in September last year, the now-departing Chair of the WRU spoke about having ‘east, west, and central’ clubs.

This led to rife speculation over the futures of Ospreys and Scarlets – both located in the ‘west’ of Wales, and logically the more in danger.

That is not to say that Cardiff – who had to be taken over by the Union earlier in 2025 after falling into administration – nor the Dragons, who have been the less successful region on the pitch of the four in recent times, were not without their struggles.

“We made the decision last year for the best interest of the Dragons to sign the PRA,” Blumberg explains.

The new Professional Rugby Agreement, referred to as PRA25, was immediately controversial as it set out the budgets for the four regions despite Cardiff being owned by the Union.

Scarlets and Ospreys refused to sign it at the time – but have since relented and both signed the deal in recent months – whereas Dragons were happy to sign it over a year ago.

“It secured our future for five years at the time,” Blumberg asserts.

“It gave us fixed funding versus variable funding, which is really valuable, and gave us a chance to lay some foundations for the next few years. It was the right thing for us to do at the time.”

What followed was anything but calm.

“Even after signing the PRA, it was announced that the consultation document basically said that [the structure of Welsh rugby] was going to go down to two teams,” he says.

“At that point, we didn’t really know what the future looked like. Then the WRU announced three teams, which was kind of good news in a sense. but they were unclear to a degree around who was going to go and how it was going to work.”

The confusion caused by the Union’s initial desire to create two completely new clubs, only to renege on that decision following a game-wide consultation with the clubs, players, and fans, is still being felt almost a year on.

“We don’t know at this point much more perhaps than the public know,” Blumberg adds.

That lack of clarity bites hardest when you are the one trying to plan contracts, signings, and off-pitch developments.

“From a Dragons point of view, we want to get a resolution, we want to move forward, we want to know what the next five, ten years look like,” the Dragons chief emphasises.

“We do want to redevelop Rodney Parade. We do want to move forward in a place where we know what the future looks like. Of course we do.”

He is careful, though, not to turn it into open warfare with the WRU.

“I think it’s fair to say that we would love to get a resolution as fast as possible,” he says.

“But I’m also appreciative of the fact that it’s not just us involved, and there’s plenty of turbulence that has happened over the course of the last six months or so that would have impacted on those decisions.

“On the whole in Welsh rugby, we appreciate that it’s not quite that simple.”

Dragons are trying to control the things they can. One of those is the stadium. Owning Rodney Parade is not just a line on a balance sheet; it is a central plank of the survival case.

“We’re the only sort of club in Wales that own our own ground, so we’ve got an opportunity to redevelop it,” Blumberg says. “We’re progressing that at the moment with different parties, including private companies and the council, which is really positive.

“We’re just trying to make the most of what we’ve got, and up until the end of this term of this contract, we’ll be looking to try and get in front of the union as fast as possible to negotiate a new deal once they’ve announced what the outcome is going to be of the research they’re conducting around the three‑team solution.

“We will endeavour to do our very best to put a case forward as to why the Dragons should be a team in the future. We are determined to prove that the Dragons should be a team in the future.”

Part of that case is the way the four regions deal with each other in a landscape where one will have to disappear.

“There’s been certain times in the last 18 months where it’s been a bit fractious, naturally,” he admits. “When the union announced that it’s going down to two teams, you immediately close your front door and think, right, how can we build a war chest here to protect ourselves? That’s just instinct.

“But on a personal note, I’ve got a great relationship with all three of the CEOs. We don’t go in there and row. We go in there and talk productively and try and find solutions.”

When Blumberg arrived at Rodney Parade in June 2024, he walked into a club that had never quite matched its potential on the pitch but had just secured new ownership, also from the WRU.

“I arrived and it was a fantastic rugby club that over the years hasn’t performed perhaps as well as it should have done on the field,” Blumberg reflects.

“I walked into a new ownership group that was desperately keen to make the place a better place on and off the pitch. And I was the man tasked, I guess, with doing that from an executive perspective.

“The first thing that we did was do a bit of a review, made some changes both on and off the pitch. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve built an environment with some really key personnel. Last year we definitely settled down and thankfully saw some fruits of that labour.”

Those fruits were obvious in the last season: reaching a EPCR Challenge Cup semi-final with big scalps in Europe, and progress in the United Rugby Championship following a disastrous previous campaign.

One thing that stands out in Blumberg’s leadership of Dragons is emphasising the Gwent region as a strength to be harnessed.

“Two of our coaches are local lads, young coaches, in Matt O’Brien and Sam Hobbs, who do a fantastic job,” Blumberg says.

“These guys, alongside Rhys Patchell and Dan Lydiate [who are now coaching at Benetton and Wales respectively] watch this space for all four of those, they’ll flourish over the years and become really successful coaches.”

Over them sits Filo Tiatia, originally hired as a defence coach, now the uncompromising standard‑setter.

“Filo’s coached in so many different environments all over the world,” Blumberg says.

“He was an excellent player, a bit of a grizzly bear in terms of the way he played the game. But he’s very honest and straight, and makes people uphold standards, and that’s a fantastic influence that he’s brought into our environment.

“He went out and picked a defence coach, and I think he found the ying to his yang in Dale Macleod.

“Dale’s a really, really good man. Speaks brilliantly. Great storyteller, very articulate, and I think they complement each other really well.”

That balance of local and global is mirrored on the pitch. The recruitment last year was a statement. Blumberg lists their front-row additions as an example:

“If you think about it, so our front‑row players we signed last year, you’ve got a British Lion in Wyn Jones, a 50‑cap‑plus international tighthead in Dillon Lewis, a South African in Rob Hunt who came in and made a huge impact.

Behind them is a clutch of Gwent and Welsh youngsters seizing opportunities: Ryan Woodman, Che Hope, Harry Beddall, Joe Westwood, alongside stalwarts finally getting their due.

“What really pleased me was Harrison Keddie, who’s been the most competitive, excellent player for the Dragons for a decade,” Blumberg says.

“Finally got his chance to be picked in a senior Wales squad. You have to think that that’s due to the fact that he’s been in a team that’s more successful this year and has been able to demonstrate his ability.”

All of that sits on top of a recruitment strategy grounded in realism and Southern Hemisphere know‑how.

“We still work to a moderate budget,” Blumberg says.

“We’re not necessarily in a position to go out and sign the very best of Southern Hemisphere players, just purely on the basis that we can’t compete financially, so strategically you need to go find good players.

“I go back to Rob Hunt and Tinus [de Beer] and others. These are really good signings.

“Fine Inisi, Fetuli Paea, these guys are really good players.

“If you look at Ere [Enari], just won Super Rugby, played a massive part in that, was outstanding for the Hurricanes. Anzelo [Tuitavuki] looks like a real raw talent that can add a lot of value. Terrell [Peita] is a young guy again, Filo and Dale are backing those guys that they can do a job for us.”

What has changed most is the feeling around matchday.

“Every time we played anybody, it could be the Stormers at full strength, it could be some of the best teams in the world, you almost felt like you’d compete and have a go,” Blumberg says.

“You thought, ‘this could happen.’ You’re always in the game.”

He points to the demolition of Connacht at home and the derbies that followed against Cardiff and Scarlets

“When we beat Connacht at home by 40‑odd points, we went into the Scarlets game the week after and were really confident of winning that game,” he says.

“There was an air of confidence. I think you’ve got to get that momentum up. Once you’ve got momentum, you’ve got a chance.”

The Challenge Cup run underlined that belief. Reaching the semi-finals with back-to-back away victories over Stade Français and Zebre Parma were memorable for players and fans alike.

“We went down to Paris with everything against us really,” he says of the Stade Français tie.

“But I was confident going into Paris, and I was chuffed to bits with the way that we won the game. It was a last‑minute win, it was fantastic.

“Zebre was always going to be a tough game, scrappy, but the boys, I thought, won that game really comfortably.

“Montpellier [in the semi-final] was always going to be a challenge, but again, our boys stepped up and had a real go at it. I’ve actually still gutted that we didn’t get over the line. It was really, really there for the taking, potentially.”

If Dragons are going to win the argument that they deserve a place in Welsh rugby’s future, their greatest allies might be the people who already treat that as self‑evident.

“Dragons fans have probably been the most impressive part of my journey so far with the club,” Blumberg says.

“Gwent generally, is a blue‑collar area, you work hard, dig in. That’s the feeling you get from the boys who play for the club. You also get that feeling from the fans.

“They haven’t had a lot to shout about the last 15 years, and yet there they are every week. When I arrived in Paris again for the last 16 game, I looked across and there were just Dragons fans everywhere. The whole stand opposite me was full of them.”

If some of those supporters do not care about what happens to Cardiff, Ospreys or Scarlets when the WRU’s decision is passed down in the coming months, Blumberg is not about to lecture them.

“If a fan is one‑eyed about their club and they don’t care about the other teams, I think that’s fair enough,” he says.

“It’s my job to be a diplomat. I’ve got to make sure that the Dragons’ best interest is absolute top of the pile, but I’ve also got to make sure that I do it in a way that’s respectful.”

He knows the clock is ticking. The Union has said three teams, and sometime, a decision will be made.

Between now and then, his task is clear.

“We’re planning to the end of the PRA25,” he says.

“We are determined to prove that the Dragons should be a team of the future.”

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