Ben Carter and Taine Basham return as Dragons RFC name their side to face Ospreys at the Swansea.com Stadium in the BKT United Rugby Championship on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 3.00pm).
Head Coach Dai Flanagan makes three changes to his starting line-up with Ewan Rosser coming into the fifteen jersey.
Lock Ben Carter returns from suspension to take his place in the boiler room with Matthew Screech.
While Harri Keddie moves to the blindside as Welsh international Taine Basham makes his return in the openside jersey against rivals the Ospreys.
Forward Ryan Woodman could make his return from the bench while there is also a call-up for Joe Westwood amongst the replacements following his exploits with Newport RFC.
The replacement front row remains unchanged with hooker Brodie Coghlan alongside props Rodrigo Martinez & Dmitri Arhip, while Sean Lonsdale joins Woodman as the other forward on the bench.
Scrum half Morgan Lloyd keeps his place in the 21-jersey following his Dragons debut against the Stormers last week and is joined by Westwood and Sio Tomkinson.
Flanagan said: “Ospreys have been impressive this year. They know their game plan and they have evolved through the year, with and without the ball.
“They move the ball a lot more than they did at the start of the year when they knew their strength was their set piece and kicking game.
“There is a steel that Mark [Jones, defence coach] has brought to them and they are further down the line than the team that came to Rodney Parade early in the season.
“It will be a tough contest and they taught us a lesson down there last year,” said Flanagan. “That was a big learning curve – we went down there really emotional, lived on the edge and got punished for it.
“The challenge is for Steff Hughes & Co to do that. We want to be physical in a derby but we have to be composed in critical moments.”
“The international boys are the ones that we can let go and tell them to be excited – we don’t want to pull Aaron Wainwright and Taine Basham back.
“If we can bring the intensity and physicality that we had against Connacht and the Stormers, we can take massive optimism going there.
“Physically we are a good team – there aren’t many teams that are as powerful and quick as what we can put out.”
Dragons RFC: Ewan Rosser, Rio Dyer, Steff Hughes (c), Aneurin Owen, Chris Hollis, Will Reed, Dane Blacker; Rhodri Jones, Elliot Dee, Chris Coleman, Ben Carter, Matthew Screech, Harri Keddie, Taine Basham, Aaron Wainwright
Replacements: Brodie Coghlan, Rodrigo Martinez, Dmitri Arhip, Sean Lonsdale, Ryan Woodman, Morgan Lloyd, Joe Westwood, Sio Tomkinson
Unavailable (14): Harri Ackerman (leg), Oli Andrew (hamstring), Leon Brown (knock), Cai Evans (shin), Lloyd Fairbrother (calf), Ollie Griffiths (elbow), Ashton Hewitt (knee), Dan Lydiate (knee), Bradley Roberts (back), Jared Rosser (calf), Rhodri Williams (hip), George Young (pec)
Physically we are a good team – there aren’t many teams that are as powerful and quick as what we can put out...
