Newport Gwent Dragons have made four changes to the team for Friday night’s Magners League home game against Munster from the side that lost in Galway last weekend.
Aled Thomas has recovered from his rib injury that forced him to miss last weekend’s trip to Connacht and returns at fly half.
The other three changes are among the forwards with Hugh Gustafson replacing Adam Black, Luke Charteris returning as skipper and coming in for Peter Sidoli while Jamie Ringer is replaced by Dan Lydiate in the back row.
The Munster game last year has happy memories for young centre Ashley Smith who was crowned Man of the Match. Speaking about that game Ashley said, “To be honest not much went wrong that night, the team performed well and I had a couple of breaks and capitalised on their mistakes. We need to recapture the spirit that was there against the Scarlets in our opening game and I am sure that after our meetings this week on Friday all will be put to bed. We need to improve and keep the level of performance we had against the Scarlets and since that game we haven’t performed but by Friday we will turn it round. On Monday we got stuck into each other in training and made use of a good morning and got the aggression going. The whole squad is now excited about getting out there and getting that win under our belt. Any home game is naturally important but there is greater emphasis with two losses but pressure doesn’t do anyone any harm.”
Friday’s game marks the first of two visits by Irish opposition to Rodney Parade and next weekend the Men of Gwent face Ulster.
Head Coach Paul Turner said, “One thing that we showed last season was desire and passion which got us through. It is difficult having players away especially as they are crucial to us, however, we need to get back on the horse and get a performance and with it the win will come. Players need to stand up, the young players like Hugh Gustafson, Dan Lydiate, Martyn Thomas and Ashley Smith are doing well and have good the energy but our senior players need to recapture their desire which has been missing in the last two games.
“Munster will be a difficult challenge, they are good up front and have Pucciariello, O’Driscoll and Foley in the pack while behind the scrum they have recruited well so we are expecting them to be a force. If we get the performance the win will come, we pride ourselves on our home performances and need two home wins in our next two games.”
Dragons Team
Martyn Thomas, Gareth Wyatt, Rhodri Gomer-Davies, Ashley Smith, Richard Mustoe, Aled Thomas, Andrew Williams, Hugh Gustafson, Steve Jones, Rhys Thomas, Luke Charteris, Andrew Hall, Dan Lydiate, Richard Parks, Joe Bearman.
Replacements
Ben Daly, Adam Black, Peter Sidoli, Nic Fitisemanu, Jamie Ringer, Gareth Maule, Wayne Evans
