Landmark appearance for Bevington
PROP Ryan Bevington will make his 100th appearance in the Guinness PRO14 when Dragons tackle Zebre at Stadio Lanfranchi today (1700BST).
Former Wales international Bevington hits the milestone as he is called into the team as one of five changes made by Director of Dragons Rugby Dean Ryan.
Two changes in the back row see returns for fit-again Number Eight Harrison Keddie and Wales Under-20 ace Taine Basham. Ollie Griffiths (groin) is ruled out of the fixture.
Centre Tyler Morgan makes his first start of the season, as he links up with Jack Dixon in midfield.
The final change is a starting spot for wing Will Talbot-Davies. Ashton Hewitt misses the game with a facial injury sustained at Munster last weekend.
Hooker Rhys Lawrence returns among the replacements in Italy.
Backs coach Barry Maddocks said: “We know the size of the challenge we face this weekend. Zebre are a well organised team with a very big pack, who are powerful up front and set piece dominated.
“We played one of the best teams in Europe last weekend who have done exceptionally well at playing a certain type of power game.
“Hopefully that will have put the team in a good position to understand what they face this weekend.
“This fixture has allowed us to go away for a number of days and talk about how we want to play the game and be really tight as a group,” he added.
“It is a good opportunity, but we have to respect the teams we are playing, even though they are supposedly weaker. The strength of the squads they have means they are still formidable teams.” Zebre: M Cioffi; C Walker, J Elliott, E Lucchini, P Bruno; M Blondelli, J Renton; D Fischetti. M Manfredi, A Tarus, M Kearney, G Biagi (c), I Bianchi, J Meyer, G Licata. Reps: M Ceciliani, D Rimpelli, G Zilocchi, S Ortis, A Tauyavuca, N Casillo, L Mantelli, F Mori.
Dragons: J Williams; W Talbot-Davies, T Morgan, J Dixon, O Jenkins; S Davies, R Williams (c); R Bevington, R Hibbard, L Brown, J Davies, M Screech, L Evans, T Basham, H Keddie. Reps: R Lawrence, B Harris, L Fairbrother, M Williams, H Taylor, T Knoyle, J Botica, A Warren. Referee: Sean Gallagher (Ire).