Dean Ryan believes his Dragons can look forward with confidence to a busy spell of Guinness PRO14 and Champions Cup rugby after victory in Italy against Benetton Rugby.
Dragons claimed a second league win of the season – after an enforced four-week spell without any games – and next up face a trip to Scotland to tackle Glasgow Warriors on Saturday (kick-off 7.15pm).
The rearranged game with Warriors is quickly followed by back-to-back Champions Cup games with powerhouse European sides Wasps and Bordeaux and then festive derby action.
However, Director of Dragons Rugby Ryan believes his squad can enter that period in good heart after the manner of the victory at Stadio Comunale do Monigo.
“We won’t take a breath now until February,” admitted Ryan. “This was good for us because if we didn’t get this we would have been chasing another chance to get momentum next week.
“We are going to have a ball in the Champions Cup, we are really going to enjoy ourselves. but we realise how tough it is going to be.
“The last thing we need to be doing is chasing something. We need to be ready and prepared to enjoy ourselves. The result in Benetton was a good start.”
Dragons will this week assess the fitness of prop Lloyd Fairbrother, back row Ben Fry and centre Adam Warren who were all forced off in the opening half hour in Italy.
“The risk of being sat still for three weeks was us picking up injuries,” added Ryan.
“We probably lost momentum against Benetton because of back row changes, we also went to two 12s on the pitch, which wasn’t ideal.
“I think we went into ourselves across the middle of the game. But that is the challenge and let’s hope the injuries as not as serious as we first thought.”
This was good for us because if we didn’t get this we would have been chasing another chance to get momentum next week...
