CENTRE Sam Beard returns to the Dragons XV to face his former club Edinburgh in the Guinness PRO14 tomorrow evening (kick-off 7.35pm).

The influential 27-year-old, who had a superb first season at Rodney Parade after heading south from the Scottish capital, missed last week’s 39-16 loss to Leinster through injury.

Welsh-qualified Beard returns to partner Tyler Morgan in midfield while head coach Bernard Jackman makes just one other change to his starting line-up with Rynard Landman swapping with Matthew Screech to slot into the second row next to captain Cory Hill.

The Dragons are still without 2016/17 player of the year Ollie Griffiths with the back row forward, capped against Tonga in the summer, struggling with a hip injury.

Loosehead Phil Price returns on the bench instead of Luke Garrett and Adam Hughes is preferred to Wales Under-20s speedster Jared Rosser.

Scrum-half Owain Leonard, an unused replacement at Myreside last season, is poised for his debut as back-up to Charlie Davies after injuries to Sarel Pretorius (calf) and Tavis Knoyle (knee).

Edinburgh hand a debut to summer recruit Robbie Fruean with the former Bath and Crusaders centre starting in a back line that also features Welsh wing Jason Harries.

Former Dragons fly-half Jason Tovey, the region's record points scorer, starts on the bench.

The hosts started the season with an excellent 20-10 win at Cardiff Blues and bring Scotland internationals Ben Toolis and Hamish Watson into the pack at lock and flanker respectively while Italy loosehead Michele Rizzo gets a first start since joining from Leicester.

The match will be refereed by South Africa's Stuart Berry, who makes his tournament debut.

Edinburgh: B Kinghorn, D Hoyland, C Dean, R Fruean, J Harries, D Weir, S Hidalgo-Clyne, M Rizzo, S McInally, WP Nel, B Toolis, G Gilchrist, J Ritchie, H Watson, M Bradbury (captain). Replacements: R Ford, D Marfo, S Berghan, F McKenzie, C Du Preez, N Fowles, J Tovey, J Rasolea.

Dragons: Z Kirchner, A Hewitt, T Morgan, S Beard, H Amos, G Henson, C Davies, B Harris, E Dee, L Brown, R Landman, C Hill (captain), J Thomas, J Benjamin, H Keddie. Replacements: R Buckley, P Price, L Fairbrother, M Screech, M Williams, O Leonard, A O’Brien, A Hughes.

Referee: Stuart Berry (South Africa)