Dean Ryan has stated team selection for the opening games in pre-season will be senior focussed as Dragons look to hit the floor running in the United Rugby Championship.
Dragons RFC kick-off preparations tomorrow (Friday) when they welcome Bristol Bears to Rodney Parade (kick-off 7pm).
The following week Wasps arrive in Newport before the warm-up concludes against Scarlets on September 9.
The Men of Gwent start the new URC season at Edinburgh on Saturday, September 17 before games against Munster (home), the Sharks (home), Benetton (away), Cardiff (away), the Ospreys (home) and Zebre (home) in the first block.
And Ryan is eager that a core group of players are bedded in ahead of the opening day in Scotland.
He said: “We will have a slightly different focus this pre-season. We are probably more focused on the group that will play against Edinburgh because of the changes with new faces coming in.
“I don't think that we will see everybody who is here (in Dublin) play in a pre-season game, which is something we’ve tried to do in previous years.
“We will see a focus on a core group that we will use across the seven games because we need to integrate them, and those seven games are crucial to us getting some momentum into the season.
“We missed that last year when we were competitive across the first window but didn't strike in those games, so that is a huge focus for us.
“We won't hide from being senior-focused across these pre-season games, we have to be because we can't have decision-making positions coming into the URC trying to get up to speed,” added Ryan.
“Like in all pre-season games, we will see some rustiness and agendas that we haven't quite seen yet in training. We just have to get playing to try and get more aligned for the URC window.”
Watch Dragons RFC in the pre-season opener with Bristol Bears at Rodney Parade on Friday (kick-off 7pm).
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We will have a slightly different focus this pre-season... We are probably more focused on the group that will play against Edinburgh because of the changes with new faces coming in...
