Head Coach Dai Flanagan wants his Dragons to meet fire with fire when they face a physical Emirates Lions – admitting the visitors will look to take the Men of Gwent to ‘dark places’.
The Men of Gwent play the second of three home games in October when they tackle the Lions from Johannesburg at Rodney Parade on Sunday afternoon (kick-off 2.30pm).
Flanagan is full of praise for the visitors this weekend and the way they have evolved in the last few seasons.
But he wants his side to build on the powerful display against Hollywoodbets Sharks last weekend as BKT United Rugby Championship rugby again hits Newport.
Flanagan said: “The Lions are a very, very physical, and tough team, you can see that they are united and their coach Ivan van Rooyen has done a superb job.
“The Lions have their DNA. They have a big scrum, they maul more than any other team and they keep the ball in longer, then they pack a punch when they hit you. They will be a force this year.
“They are a lot more physical than the other South African teams – they want to take you to dark places and see if you can live with it.
“I enjoy watching them play because they pick up players who you have never heard of and make them into stars.
“I am sure it has been really rewarding for them to see so many go on to play for South Africa from the Lions.
“When watching the Edinburgh game there is firstly a bit of fear and ‘wow’ but then you get excited about what we could do to them, how we could find solutions and where are the opportunities,” he added.
“A big one is that we are at Rodney Parade. At altitude it is different because as an away team you want to slow the game down to acclimatise in the first 20 to 30 minutes whereas they want to blow you out of the park.
“We played the Bulls many years ago with the Scarlets and one of their players came to meet Dwayne Peel, who he worked with before, and asked what the plan was and he said ‘to make your lungs bleed’.
“Thankfully we don’t have to deal with altitude, and we want to keep developing our style of play so that hopefully people are proud to watch us and can see a bit of themselves in how we play.
“It’s Rodney Parade and hopefully we can continue to turn out performances like we have been – get our processes right and have good outcomes.
“There is nothing like playing in front of your own people and our attitude and how we stayed in the fight was impressive last weekend."
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They are a lot more physical than the other South African teams – they want to take you to dark places and see if you can live with it...
