Dean Ryan has acknowledged that Dragons will face yet more South African power when they tackle the Cell C Sharks later this week – but has called on his squad to again produce a display they can be proud of.
The Men of Gwent opened the South African tour with a 55-20 defeat to the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria, in a game where the team scored three tries and showed real spirit and battling qualities in difficult conditions.
Dragons have now travelled to Durban as they prepare to face the Sharks on Friday evening (kick-off 6.30pm UK) – who themselves will be wounded after losing to Edinburgh at the weekend.
“I watched the Sharks game (with Edinburgh) and we are under no illusion of the power that came against Bulls is coming again on Friday,” said Ryan.
“My job is to create an environment across this week that enables people to look at opportunities and then get in a space where we work as hard as we did against the Bulls.
“The power that is capable of being delivered by the Sharks in the scrum and drive is very similar to what we faced against the Bulls. The wet weather conditions that we saw for the Edinburgh game are what I expect next week too.
“It’s important that we focus on preparing as well as we can, look for opportunities in our game and look to be as ready to go as we were against the Bulls.”
Dragons have been boosted ahead of the United Rugby Championship fixture with the arrival of five players into camp - Ross Moriarty, Will Rowlands, Taine Basham, Aaron Wainwright and Josh Lewis.
“We do have players coming in, but it’s a balancing act,” added Ryan.
“We have to be careful because three or four players doesn’t solve everything.
“We lost Ollie Griffiths against the Bulls, who has been huge for us, and we also lost Ben Carter, who hasn’t played any rugby for months.
“We have some players joining, but we will still be under pressure.
“But we will have more quality with those players coming in and we expect them to make an impact for us.”
My job is to create an environment across this week that enables people to look at opportunities and then get in a space where we work as hard as we did against the Bulls...
