ROSS Moriarty has vowed to make up for lost time when he eventually gets his Dragons career up and running on completion of the ban handed down to him while on Wales duty this summer.

The back-rower will miss the Rodney Parade region’s pre-season friendlies against Ealing, Northampton and former club Gloucester, as well as their opening PRO14 clash with Benetton.

He was given a four-week suspension after being sent off for a chokehold on fly-half Nicolas Sanchez in the dying stages of Wales’ 30-12 defeat of Argentina in Santa Fe on June 16.

Moriarty took to social media following the match to apologise for his indiscipline, but also received his fair share of abuse from those who felt he crossed the line.

And while Moriarty hopes to put it all behind him when he finally pulls on a Dragons jersey, the 24-year-old insists he will still be as physical as ever on the field.

“I think everyone knows what I’m about and that’s what I’m going to bring every week – people shouldn’t really expect anything less,” he said.

“I am obviously disappointed with finishing the tour the way I did but there’s plenty of rugby to be had and I’m sure when I get back to it I’ll definitely make up for it.

“There’s definitely a lot of players who have lost their heads a lot worse than I have in rugby.

“There’s always going to be times when players do silly things and I could have done a lot worse, but I did what I did, got a red card and paid the price.

“I’ll miss the first league game of the season but, like I said, it’s a long season and I’ll do what I can when I can.

“Being the way I am has got me to where I am today so I can’t change too much and take certain things out of my game.

“Obviously choking people out is going to have to go out of it, but that was just a silly moment which I regret.

“I haven’t said I justify what I did but if someone smashed your head into the floor what would you want to do?

“That is what people forget sometimes, it’s a physical game and people do things that are overlooked and you only see the end result.

“We’ll forget all of that pretty soon I’m sure when I start playing again.”

Speaking further about his performances on tour, he added: “Considering how little I played, I was happy with what I got through during that tour. I felt I made good impact on the games.

“I felt my physicality was right and that’s what we needed because it was a young squad and there were quite a lot of players who hadn’t played for Wales before.

“I do what I do and I’m not going to change that.

“I was really happy to be on the field for 80 minutes three times in a row for the first time in a whole season.”

The Dragons travel to London on Saturday for their first pre-season friendly against Ealing Trailfinders, before hosting the Saints then visiting Gloucester.