"We’re excited about the Welsh derbies," said Bernard Jackman. "We’ve been away to Ospreys and Blues so it's good to get them back here, we’d hope to get a big crowd in.
Ticket sales for both games are going well, with the Cardiff Blues match on course to sell out as it did for the Christmas 2015 fixture between the two south east Wales regions.
"Our natural game is high tempo and to have Hallam back at full back, he looked dangerous against Newcastle," added Jackman.
"We’re doing a lot of hardwork up at Ystrad Mynach to have the fitness levels to play at a high tempo, so we’ll look to play the Blues."
"I hope the fans although disappointed with the defeat against Newcastle, can see we’re a team that are digging in and showing heart and courage and we just need to put more detail around."
It has been widely reported how affected Jackman's squad selection has been this season with the injuries mounting up, but with no fresh concerns after the Newcastle game last week, there's hope more players will soon be returning for contention as the former Ireland hooker explained.
"We have Harrison Keddie and Sam Beard who are back in training but not contact, so the Blues might be a bit tight for them and if not Ospreys, then definitely into the first week of January we’d have one if not two back."
After bringing in Nicky Thomas as cover at prop, the Dragons head coach is also looking forward to calling upon his new recruit for the upcoming derby fixtures and explained what he is sees in the former Scarlets player who has a chance to impress during his loan stay.
"Nicky Thomas is a guy I’ve been tracking for a while, I remember him playing Wales Under-20s and at Gloucester, plus I’ve seen him at Bristol because we’ve recruited from there," Bernard said.
"Nicky went in there (Bristol) at the start of the season when their scrum was struggling and shored it up and in the Championship the scrum is a weapon.
"He started with us on Tuesday and we’ve done some nice scrums and he was really impressive. I’d describe him as an old school scrummaging tight-head and it’s nice to have as many of them as you can.
"With Brok injured and Leon just coming and struggling a bit, we needed a little more depth and he certainly gives us a different type of weapon going into the next block.
"We get to try him out and when you see a guy day in day out you get a real clear idea of what they are about, so we’ll make him welcome and up-skilled in our systems.
"He’s off contract in June so he’s someone we would have a fair chance of getting if we like him."
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