The Men of Gwent returned to training following a seven-day break after their trip to South Africa where they lost out to Southern Kings.
Dragons Head Coach, Bernard Jackman has included Welsh Internationals Cory Hill, Elliot Dee and Hallam Amos in the changes he has made for this Friday’s clash.
Hallam Amos is named on the wing in the back three and joins Ashton Hewitt and South African Fullback Zane Kirchner. The centre partnership is all change as Sam Beard and Connor Edwards get the nod whilst there are also changes in the half-backs as fly-half Arwel Robson and scrum-half Sarel Pretorius return to the starting XV.
The front row sees two changes made to it as hooker Elliot Dee returns alongside loosehead prop Sam Hobbs and tighthead prop Lloyd Fairbrother. Whilst skipper Cory Hill returns to join Joe Davies in the second row, and Harrison Keddie, Aaron Wainwright and Lewis Evans make up the back row.
The bench sees Ellis Shipp, Gerard Ellis, Dan Suter, Max Williams, Taine Basham, Dan Babos, Adam Warren and Jared Rosser all named.
Looking back at the Dragons previous game, Jackman commented: “We have looked at why the game got away from us and in fairness, the boys have been really positive following the week off. Following that we had a good week training ahead of the match.
“We have some older heads back with the likes of Hallam, Elliot and Cory as well as Sarel who is back in the team. This gives us a little bit more experience which is important particularly when you come back from a poor performance.
“We would like to think that there are areas in our game that we can challenge the Cheetahs. We have been watching them since Round 1 in the PRO14 so we know what they are about and we know that they have some very good players – we are well aware of their strengths.”
He continued; “It’s an important game in particular given the fact how we have played against Edinburgh and the Kings so we need to show some character. We want to finish our last game at Rodney Parade with our heads held high.”
Dragons team to face Toyota Cheetahs
15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Ashton Hewitt, 13 Sam Beard, 12 Connor Edwards, 11 Hallam Amos, 10 Arwel Robson, 9 Sarel Pretorius; 1 Sam Hobbs, 2 Elliot Dee, 3 Lloyd Fairbrother, 4 Joe Davies, 5 Cory Hill ©, 6 Harrison Keddie, 7 Aaron Wainwright, 8 Lewis Evans.
Replacements; Ellis Shipp, Gerard Ellis, Dan Suter, Max Williams, Taine Basham, Dan Babos, Adam Warren, Jared Rosser.
