Wales 'needs Heineken Cup winner'
Welsh rugby needs a Heineken Cup winner, claims Tom Willis
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By Matthew Champion. |  |
Thursday, 08, Oct 2009 05:29
EXCLUSIVE by Tom Powell.
Newport-Gwent Dragons captain Tom Willis believes Welsh success in the Heineken Cup would provide a major boost to the national side.
With the 15th season of Europe's biggest club competition soon to get underway, Wales is yet to see one of it's regions lift the trophy.
But Willis feels success for one of the nation's four clubs in this campaign would greatly benefit progression at international level.
Willis told inthenews.co.uk: "I think it's very important to Welsh rugby for some of the Welsh sides to be successful in this competition.
"We're into the 15th season of the Heineken Cup and we're yet to have a Welsh winner.
"So with the progressive nature of the Welsh national team it would be great to complement that with a Heineken Cup success from one of the Welsh sides."
However, Willis isn't overly confident about his own side's chances of progression from the pool stages.
"It would be very ambitious to think we could get out of our group and into the knockout stages," he conceded.
"But we will target all our home games. Rodney Parade has proved to be a real fortress for the Dragons - teams coming here know they are in for a tough night.
"If we can be a success at home then front up away and pick up a few bonus points then who knows? We could be in with a chance."
Willis admitted the lack of depth could be a problem for the Dragons when competing against some of the stronger and wealthier European clubs.
But he claims that, if they avoid any major injuries, Newport can cause problems for their opponents.
"It is important our squad remains injury free," he continued.
"We don't quite have the resources or the squad depth as some of the big clubs but what we do have is 22 players who, week from week, will go out and do a job for us.
"But if we lose players in key positions we are exposed a little bit so ultimately we need to avoid injuries."
The Dragons currently lie fifth in the Magners League and Willis is now looking forward to the challenge of leading his side into Europe, starting with a trip to Gloucester on Friday.
"The Heineken Cup is the show piece of European rugby so we prioritise it a lot," he concluded.
"For us to be involved along with all the other big European teams helps raise our profile, which can only be a good thing.
"It's ambitious to think we can go away to Gloucester in the first game and win, but we've got momentum and confidence in our camp and I'm of the opinion that we can go over there and ambush them."
To read the full interview with Newport-Gwent Dragons captain Tom Willis, check back to the inthenews.co.uk rugby union pages on Friday October 9th.