Dragons Look to Retain Record at Rodney Parade

Head Coach Paul Turner makes five changes to the team that faced Glasgow Warriors at home and is looking for a huge performance from the team this weekend.

Ceri Sweeney returns at fly-half, Paul Emerick replaces injured centre Ashley Smith and Martyn Thomas comes in at full-back with Kevin Morgan moving onto the bench.

In the forwards, Adam Black returns pending fitness testing and Michael Owen replaces Jamie Ringer at number eight who takes a seat on the bench.

Connacht have not won at Rodney Parade since a 16-14 league win over Newport RFC in September 2001. Flanker Joe Bearman is confident that the Dragons have what it takes to secure a victory over Connacht at home this week. He said:

"Training has been going very well this week and we've worked on a lot of our weaknesses which will hopefully show on the pitch on Friday night against Connacht.

"I'm very much looking forward to the challenge as we look to accumulate more points and to end the season on a high."

The team to face Connacht is as follows:

15 Martyn Thomas
14 Gareth Wyatt
13 Paul Emerick
12 Rhodri Gomer-Davies
11 Richard Mustoe
10 Ceri Sweeney
9 Andrew Williams

1 Adam Black/ Dai Pattison
2 Steve Jones
3 Rhys Thomas
4 Adam Jones
5 Luke Charteris
6 Colin Charvis (captain)
7 Joe Bearman
8 Michael Owen

16 Ben Daly
17 Dai Pattison/ Lee Harrison
18 Andy Hall
19 Jamie Ringer
20 Jason Tovey
21 Kevin Morgan
22 Wayne Evans