Dragons hit back at Moffett jibes

Moffett pushed through the creation of five regions

Newport Gwent Dragons chief executive Gethin Jenkins has hit back at jibes by David Moffett who called for changes at the top of the region.

Moffett, the former group chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union, branded the region a "basket case" and said people with "ambition" are needed.

But Jenkins said: "The board remain ambitious, but they remain ambitious along sustainable lines.

"There's no point going back to a period of boom and bust."

Moffett spent three years as WRU group chief executive before resigning in December 2005 for "family reasons".

Under his stewardship, the Australian pushed through the creation of five regions to replace the nine top-flight clubs.

That was reduced to four when the Celtic Warriors folded after a year.

His comments came during an interview on BBC Radio Wales Scrum V on the Radio programme on Thursday.

He said: "The Dragons have been a bit of a basket case and what they need are some people in there to run it who have got ambition for that region.

606: DEBATE Give your views on David Moffett's comments

"They get the same money as everybody else, but they're always crying poor.

"It's a fantastic region and they've got great feeder clubs in that particular Gwent region, so I would be looking at some change of the people who are running it."

But Jenkins said Moffett was "probably" not aware of the �40m stadium redevelopment and coach Paul Turner's committal to the club for another two years.

"We are not crying foul over our financial position, we are just building and slowly developing," he said.

"We are also using as much as we can Welsh local talent, we've got a good record of that and we'll continue to do so and this is something the regions were set up to do."

And he added: "The board have also gone on record saying they are willing to listen to any serious or sensible offers of investment into the Dragons and they would willing to meet with anybody."