Dragons back row forward Harrison Keddie has admitted the squad must learn quickly from their defeat to Leinster as they head north to face Edinburgh on Friday night.
In response to the Dragons’ heavy 36-19 home loss last week, coach Bernard Jackman has drafted in South African Rynard Landman for Matthew Screech in the second row, and Kiwi centre Sam Beard for Jack Dixon.
Cory Hill will again skipper the side while Gavin Henson keeps his place at fly-half. Teenage scrum-half Owain Leonard is also in line to make his debut off the bench.
“Edinburgh are in a new era under Richard Cockerill now and will want to lay down a marker in their first home game, but it’s up to us to almost do what Leinster did to us,” said Keddie.
“We need to nullify that first 20-30 minutes when they will come at us all guns blazing and then we’ve just got to execute our correct game plan, doing what we have been coached to do and prepared for.
“Last season’s defeat is one of those results that still annoys me now when I think about it. We were in a really promising position with 10 minutes remaining and ended up losing and I’m not really sure what had happened.
“But that was last year and we have a new set-up here now with new systems. Hopefully, if we are in a position like that again it won’t be the same result and we will come away with the win.”
Edinburgh go into the clash having picked up an away victory in Cardiff on the opening day of the Guinness Pro14 season, and Cockerill is looking for his squad to build on their good start.
Cockerill will hand new signing Robbie Fruean his debut at Myreside and admits he is expecting big things from the Kiwi centre.
Fruean joins having experienced a checkered injury history throughout his career which has included two operations on his heart, but Cockerill is adamant he is a risk worth taking for the Scottish club.
“You have to understand that where we are as a club at the moment,” said Cockerill. “We’re probably not first off the rank when people are choosing clubs to come to, so we have to take a little bit of a risk on some players.
“Robbie’s injury history isn’t perfect, but we’ll look after him, we’ll get him fit, and we’ve done that over the last few weeks to get him on the field.
“There will be no complacency – we are not in a position to take anybody lightly. Cardiff was a great result but the key is can we back it up? I am very well aware of this team being able to have great results followed by poor ones, so we must prove to everybody we can back it up.”
Edinburgh: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Damien Hoyland, 13 Chris Dean, 12 Robbie Fruean, 11 Jason Harries 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne; 1 Michele Rizzo, 2 Stuart McInally, 3 WP Nel, 4 Ben Toolis, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 7 Magnus Bradbury, 8 Hamish Watson.
Replacements: 16 Ross Ford, 17 Darryl Marfo, 18 Simon Berghan, 19 Fraser McKenzie, 20 Cornell du Preez, 21 Nathan Fowles, 22 Jason Tovey, 23 Junior Rasolea.
Dragons: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 Ashton Hewitt, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Sam Beard, 11 Hallam Amos, 10 Gavin Henson, 9 Charlie Davies; 1 Brok Harris, 2 Elliot Dee, 3 Leon Brown, 4 Rynard Landman, 5 Cory Hill, 6 James Thomas, 7 Harrison Keddie, 8 James Benjamin.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Buckley, 17 Phil Price, 18 Lloyd Fairbrother, 19 Matthew Screech, 20 Max Williams, 21 Owain Leonard, 22 Angus O’Brien, 23 Adam Hughes.
