Proud day for Dragons' Hall
Fri, 02 May 2008 00:51
Newport Gwent Dragons' Andy Hall is set to make his 100th appearance in the Celtic league when the region takes on Leinster at Royal Dublin Society in a Magners League fixture on Saturday.
Hall joined the Dragons in 2005 with 55 Celtic league (Magners League) appearances for Glasgow Warriors and international honours, and has since made 64 appearances for the region, 44 of those in the Celtic league.
"The Celtic league has always been a great competition to be involved in, from its inception right through to the Magners era," Hall said.
"It's certainly become a competition that people have stood up and taken notice of. It's a league of quality teams and world-class players, which is testament to the way the league has grown.
"It's here at the Dragons that I was given the opportunity to continue playing in the league and I have grown as a player at Rodney Parade. It's great to be achieving this honour as a Dragons player and I'm also proud to be the first Scottish player to have achieved this league milestone."
Hall makes his 100th league appearance just seven days after Adam Black became the first player in Celtic league history to reach this milestone.
"As with Adam Black, Andy is a player that I've known from a young age," head coach Paul Turner said.
" He's a player that I tried to sign at Bedford when he was seventeen, so it's ironic that I'm sat here with him, later on in his career, as his achieves this league milestone.
"Andy has always been an intelligent and quality rugby player. He's conscientious and sets his own high standards and we're grateful to have him here at the Dragons."
Both Andy Hall and Adam Black are set to appear against Leinster on Saturday.
Newport Gwent Dragons: 15 Kevin Morgan, 14 Gareth Wyatt, 13 Paul Emerick, 12 Gareth Maule, 11 Richard Fussell, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Andy Williams, 8 Michael Owen, 7 Richard Parks, 6 Jamie
Ringer, 5 Peter Sidoli, 4 Adam Jones, 3 Rhys Thomas, 2 Steve Jones, 1 Adam Black.
Replacements (from): Ben Daly, Lee Harrison, Andrew Hall, Phillip Dollman, James Harris, Lewis Evans, Richard Mustoe, Jason Tovey, Wayne Evans.
Date: Saturday, May 3
Venue: Royal Dublin Society, Dublin
Kick-off: 18.00 (17.00 GMT)
Referee: Andy Macpherson (SRU)
Touch Judges: Simon McDowell (IRFU), P Roche (IRFU)
TMO: Eanna O'Dowd (IRFU)
