Poole is given a fighting chance by the Dragons

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Poole is given a fighting chance by the Dragons

11:30am Wednesday 4th April 2012 in Sport By Chris Kirwan

NEWPORT Gwent Dragons will give Mike Poole every chance to prove his return to full fitness after giving the popular winger a new short-term contract.

The 25-year-old is currently on the road to recovery after undergoing a third operation on his right knee.

Poole damaged ligaments after twisting to make a tackle at Treviso in October.

His contract expires at the end of this season and given his history of problems – which started when injured playing for the Crawshays in Hong Kong in the summer of 2010 - the Dragons feel unable to offer him a long-term deal. They have instead offered him terms that will allow a full assessment of his fitness over the summer. However, the region are keen to secure his services after the way he impressed deputising for Aled Brew while the winger was at the World Cup – as long as he can prove he has made a full recovery.

“Mike is a great character to have in the squad,” said head coach Darren Edwards. “He has real potential and we will continue to invest in him.

“He really hard to earn his chance and started superbly. He gives everything and showed that he had the ability to thrive as a regional player.

“Unfortunately he picked up another knee injury but what we have seen in response has been terrific.

“Mike has toughness, bottle and determination; attributes that give him every chance of making a comeback.”

Poole made his Dragons debut against New Zealand great Doug Howlett after catching the eye in the Premiership with Newport and went on to make seven appearances before his setback in Italy.

With Brew leaving for Biarritz, he is looking to rival Tonderai Chavhanga, Will Harries, Adam Hughes and Matthew Pewtner for a starting spot.

He is making good progress in a graded recovery and is running in straight lines at about 80 per cent.

Head of conditioning Alex Lawson said: “Mike has a great work ethic, it’s not an easy recovery but his determination, hunger and intensity is incredible.”

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Always liked what little I saw of Poole playing in a Dragon's strip. He is hard as nails and doesn't shrink from physical contact. Remember him launchng himself at two forwards with ball in hand and him coming off the better, hope his manages to regain his fitness

I like him and I hope it works out for him. He's already got a good rapport with the supporters too, which is good.

Pooley, Pooley, Pooley.

The Argus do realise Hughes is a centre right ? And won't Harries be playing FB ?

Its a nice change to see a region not using the '26 weeks injured and you're off' rule thats been bandied about so often and instead backing a player to come through and play their part for the team.

dragons

I like Poole, but I don't think his switch from MMA (where his fighting weight was 77kg) to rugby has done him any favours on the injury front.

Being thick, do you mean he's too big or too small ?

I take it he's had to put on weight to play rugby and its that unnatural weight that's leading to injurys.

I quiet like Poole, gets stuck it. Not a classy wing but sould have good valence with Tondi or harries on the other.

Agreed Hughes sould be at 13. Harried isn't a 15 either.

We will not be 4th placed region next season!!

Young Guns got it in one. I fight myself at a similar weight and if I had to pile on that much extra muscle my flexibility would be shot to bits. I reckon Warburton has the same problem. It's gonna be worse for players like these who have a combatative style.

Was really looking forward to seeing him play a lot for the Dragons, and a shame he got injured so quickly. However, the first time I saw hime play, and his style when entering contact, I thought it would be a matter of time before he got injured! He launces himself into tackles with little regard for his safety, and when you've got pro rugby players running at you then every tackle is going to be hard. I think he needs to learn that you don't need to uproot every tree to fell them! Johnny Wilkinson seemed to tackle the same way for me, and he suffered a lot with 'stingers' and injuries. It's great being good in defence, but not so good if you only manage to play a few games a season!