BERNARD Jackman was coming to the end of his playing career when Ian McKinley was a bright prospect trying to make his mark at Leinster. Now the Dragons boss is aiming to keep the Italy back under wraps at Rodney Parade, writes Chris Kirwan.

The Dubliner has been released from the Six Nations squad for game time after missing out on selection for England and Ireland.

McKinley starts at full-back in Newport rather than his usual fly-half but is sure to pop up as a playmaker.

And Jackman knows his charges will have to be on their guard against the 28-year-old, who wears goggles after losing the sight in one eye in a freak on-field accident.

"It was tragic what happened but he has showed great mental strength to bounce back," said Jackman.

"It's a nice story with the resilience that he has shown to go and get capped by another country and make a career when he thought that he couldn't play the sport anymore.

"He is a very stylish and skilful player. He has loads of pace, an outside break, kicks off both feet and challenges the defensive line.

"He likes to take the ball to the line and offload late, so we are going to have to be on our mettle defensively for him, particularly that third defender."

McKinley is full-back with influential New Zealander Marty Banks, who kicked the match-winning penalty for the Highlanders against the Lions last summer, pulling the strings.

Benetton are chasing a fifth league win on the spin and field Monty Ioane fresh from his hat-trick heroics against the Scarlets last week.

"It's amazing, the Italian sides have got a hell of a lot better but it hasn't shown at the national level yet," said Jackman.

"At least there is something there for them and Benetton were good against the Scarlets – they were real opportunists.

"The old Italian rugby was based around the pack but they are coached by a Kiwi, Kieran Crowley, and have a really positive attitude with ball in hand now.

"They are very good off turnover, their attacking kicking game is very smart and we have got to be really focused.

"They have won seven out of 14 and we know that it's going to be a challenge, but we feel that we are hitting form at the right time and want to be really ambitious with how we play and go after them.

"Let's see how good they are over here. It's not that we don't respect them but we need to back ourselves to play high tempo, ball-in-hand rugby for 80 minutes and see if teams can live with us."