The 21-year-old has struggled for minutes in his second senior campaign at the Arms Park
The Dragons have shown interest in signing Wales international Mackenzie Martin from Cardiff.
The No. 8 has a year left to run on his contract at the Arms Park, but has found game time difficult to come by in his second season in senior rugby after a whirlwind rise to the Test arena. The 2023/24 campaign saw him break into Cardiff’s first team after impressing in the Welsh Premiership, earning a Wales debut under Warren Gatland in last year’s Six Nations.
However, the Ely product’s follow-up season has seen him not make a single start for his club or add to his four Test caps.
Having played over 800 minutes for club and country last season, the 21-year-old has managed just 99 minutes in cameos off the bench this year – with a lot of his game time having been for Cardiff RFC in Super Rygbi Cymru.
It would appear the Rodney Parade club are aware of his situation, having approached Cardiff over their interest.
Filo Tiatia has already signed a number of players from the Welsh capital for next season – with Tinus de Beer, Thomas Young and Seb Davies all swapping blue and black for black and amber.
Former Cardiff loosehead Dillon Lewis is also joining the club from Harlequins ahead of next season. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
However, while the Dragons have outlined their desire to add another Wales international to their ranks, it’s unclear whether any move will materialise just yet given Martin has another year left on his deal.
There has been some added uncertainty over deals in recent weeks, with Cardiff having been taken over by the Welsh Rugby Union after going into administration.
As is often the case with clubs going into administration, there was the risk that players could feasibly void their contracts – with all of Cardiff’s playing group given a letter to sign that would see them acknowledge their transfer of their contract from Cardiff Rugby Limited to the WRU’s new subsidiary.
It’s understood that not all players had necessarily signed by the deadline of last Monday evening. However, Cardiff coach Matt Sherratt was hopeful that no player will leave as a result of last week’s events.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Sherratt last week. “For the first reason, I think the players that are here are happy here.
“I’ve tried to make Cardiff an enjoyable place to play rugby. I want players who have a connection to the club and the city, and want to play for a club with the history we’ve got here.
“Hopefully all the players here have an attachment to the club. So that hopefully keeps them anyway. And then, if I’m honest contractually, I wouldn’t know the detail of whether they’re in contract or not.
“From the conversations I’ve had with the club, once they’ve TUPE’d across, their contract is the same as before we went into administration. But I’m not a lawyer, so don’t hold me to that.”
Sherratt has previously spoken about the need for the likes of Martin, Alex Mann and Cameron Winnett – who have all been capped by Wales at an early age in the past two years before being overlooked at some point – to show resilience in the face of these relative setbacks.
“That’s the challenge,” he said at the start of this season. “If you look at the likes of Mackenzie Martin, Alex Mann and Cam Winnett, they’ve been thrust into international rugby.
“I couldn’t be more pleased that they have done, but we’ve got to temper that with the fact they’re young players who are still developing. I watched Mackenzie play for Cardiff RFC against Newport last September.
“Nine months later, he’s playing against Ireland and touring Australia. Their climb has been massive. For them, it’s realising that rugby, like any job, isn’t a straight line to success.
“They’re going to have bumps and injuries along the way. They’ll have non-selections because the likes of Taulupe Faletau and James Botham are coming back. There’s a lot of competition for places.
“We’ll probably see a little bit of their resilience this year when we’ll see how they are second season, when there’s maybe a bit more expectation on them – not from me, but from themselves. It’s how they react when there’s a bump in the road, which is inevitable as it’s a bumpy career path.
“Even last year, obviously we had Thomas Young on the sidelines a lot, Josh Turnbull retired, Ellis Jenkins was at that stage of his career where he wasn’t going to play every week, Toby played 20 minutes and we had a small squad. Every region has had a little of it.
“We maybe had a little bit more. And they played so well, they got picked for Wales. I’m keen that, as a young player, you just enjoy playing without the expectation and overthinking around selection.
“If I told Mackenzie a year ago he’d have four Welsh caps, he’d have snatched my hand off. We’re looking at the long-term for these players. When they’re 25 or 26, which is still five years away for some of them, it’s making sure they’re still on an upward curve – not having a season like no other last year and then hitting a roadblock.”