Boss Dean Ryan has revealed a number of his Wales internationals will link up with the squad in South Africa next week as he bids to integrate them back into the set-up.
Dragons have jetted to the Southern Hemisphere without Taine Basham, Ross Moriarty, Will Rowlands and Aaron Wainwright as they prepare for a game with the Vodacom Bulls this Saturday (kick-off 5.15pm UK time).
However, Director of Dragons Rugby Ryan has spoken about his desire for the quartet to link-up next week as he bids to get back to full strength selection by the European clash with Gloucester.
“Our challenge over the next three weeks is to integrate our players back from being away with Wales,” he said.
“We have a couple that haven’t had a huge amount of game time over the last eight or nine weeks with us and they will integrate slightly earlier.
“We have several others probably joining us next week and hopefully we can get them playing with a target of using Gloucester to being back to selecting from a full squad.
“Leon (Brown), Ben (Carter) and Rhodri (Williams) are with us now,” he added. “We have looked at their game time over the last three months and it is a priority that we brought them out.
“Taine (Basham), Aaron (Wainwright), Ross (Moriarty) and Will (Rowlands) will probably join us at the weekend.
“Whether they play a part or not, we felt it was important to bring them back into the squad here.
“We have given them a break, but then they come out so we go into Gloucester with the squad coming together.
“It’s been the autumn since we have been together at full strength. Hopefully we stay fit to be able to do that through these next few weeks.”
Meanwhile, Ryan has confirmed a number of squad members have not travelled due to Covid restrictions.
“There are a number of people who are not travelling in the first week who would have been travelling because of the need to be PCR cleared before getting on a flight,” he said.
“We all know the challenge now and we are still restricted when it comes to travel. There are a number not here for that reason.
“Jonah (Holmes) is also not involved for travel document issues.”
It’s been the autumn since we have been together at full strength... Hopefully we stay fit to be able to do that through these next few weeks...
