In his absence the Dragons have struggled somewhat, falling to a record 60-3 defeat to Glasgow Warriors before bouncing back in this weekend's hard-fought 14-13 win against Zebre.
But with Jones, the Ospreys skipper, now back in contention and on the bench in Rome as Wales eased to a 26-9 victory, Coombs finds his place under real threat.
"The one or two errors I made [against Italy] are obviously getting to me a bit, but I will be working hard again in training this week to gain the trust of the coaches again to get that number four jersey, hopefully," Coombs told the South Wales Argus.
"I think I have done myself quite proud, I've played pretty well. I made one or two errors on the weekend, which I'm disappointed with, but that is part and parcel of the game.
"I will just have to go back into training this week and work hard on what went wrong.
"There were two handling errors, one in the first half and I got turned over on one carry as well, and I base my game around ball carrying and it wasn't at its best, but like I said, hard work will put that right."
"I'm probably the hardest person on myself, I'm my own worst critic and I do beat myself up when I make mistakes.
"I probably did some good on Saturday, but we will just have to see how the next two weeks go for us."
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