‘Intense’ week for changed Dragons

SCOTSTOWN 3pm GLASGOW v N-G DRAGONS DRAGONS coach Kingsley Jones has rung the changes in the wake of last weekend’s humbling 54-22 defeat at home to Leinster.

There are six new faces in the starting line-up for this afternoon’s Pro12 meeting with Glasgow at Scotstoun Stadium (3pm), five of them behind the scrum.

Tom Prydie and Adam Warren step into the back three, Sam Beard comes into the centre and Sarel Pretorius and Angus O’Brien form a new halfback partnership.

The only change in the pack is in the second row, with a call-up for James Thomas, with outside back Will Talbot-Davies in line to make his league debut from the bench.

Returning fly-half O’Brien said: “It’s been quite an intense week and we had good reviews and discussion on Monday about what went wrong (against Leinster) and what we need to work on. It’s been tough.

“It’s never nice losing, especially in front of our crowd. We weren’t expecting that and were disappointed because our Rodney Parade record has been good. It’s a big test but we are confident that we can put a few wrongs right.

“Glasgow are a very good team and are always in the top six or pushing for the play-offs. They’ve got a lot of strength and depth and a lot of quality.”

“But we’ve got to be confident going up there, we have to impose our game on them.

“We’ve identified what has worked for teams against them and what didn’t. We’ve done our homework and will be prepared.” Glasgow: P Murchie; L Jones, M Bennett, N Grigg, R Hughes; P Horne, H Pyrgos (capt); A Allan, C Flynn, D Rae, T Swinson, B Alainu’uese, R Harley, R Vernon, S Favaro. Reps: P MacArthur, J Bhatti, S Pufasi, S Cummings, C Fusaro, N Kenatale, B Thomson, R Tagive. Dragons: T Prydie; P Howard, A Warren, T Morgan, S Beard, A Warren; A O’Brien, S Pretorius; S Hobbs, E Dee, B Harris, J Thomas, R Landman, O Griffiths, L Evans (capt), N Cudd. Reps: R Buckley, T Davies, L Fairbrother, M Screech, H Keddie, C Davies, D Jones, W Talbot-Davies. Referee: Andrew Brace (Ire).