Boss Dean Ryan has vowed to continue to give his entire squad the chance to impress before he nails down his strongest squad for the festive derby period.
Dragons opened the new European Challenge Cup season with a bonus point 31-17 win over Castres Olympique at Rodney Parade.
Next up is a trip to Russia to tackle Enisei-STM in Krasnador on Friday (kick-off 3pm UK time).
However, Ryan insists squad development and understanding his playing resources better is his priority and not just targeting knock out cup rugby.
“There are five or six lads who haven’t had a chance to show me why they are not in the first team,” stated Ryan.
“We tried to pick a squad for the Castres game that was competitive in the core with opportunities around it. We will probably look to do the same in Russia.
“I am focussed on this squad getting better rather than this competition. It’s probably too early for us.
“For this group to get better they need to understand, week to week, we expect to win, irrespective of who is picked and who is playing. That needs to be a pressure that we bring with us.
“I haven’t though too much about the competition. I’ve thought about the fix or six lads who came in and I will think about another five or six who play in Russia.
“After that we have Zebre and then I need to see some of our Test players back involved.
“By the time we get to the third and fourth round of the European competition I will understand this squad a lot more and know who is on the front line going into the derbies.”
Ryan has welcomed World Cup trio Aaron Wainwright, Ross Moriarty and Elliot Dee back into training this week and revealed they will soon get some action for Dragons.
“I have only met our World Cup guys; I haven’t seen them on the pitch,” said Ryan.
“They will come back after the Barbarians game and we need to integrate them back in. We will probably get a couple off the bench in round three and some starts in round four.
“We all saw from the World Cup the calibre of those guys so I’m looking forward to then coming back and pushing for places.
“But when you have got some young lads like Taine Basham it gets difficult. Ollie Griffiths has been playing really well for us. That’s quite a back row contest going on.
“By the end of round four I need to know where we are at, what does our best squad look like and then we go into the derbies across Christmas as robust as we can be.”
Dragons are next at home when they tackle Zebre in the Guinness PRO14 at Rodney Parade on Saturday, November 30. Can Dean Ryan's men make it a hat-trick of wins on home soil?
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There are five or six lads who haven’t had a chance to show me why they are not in the first team...
