Dragons don't expect an easy hunt against Zebre, insists coach Shaun Connor

The Italians have been training in Newport this week ahead of Friday's Guinness Pro12 game at Rodney Parade, which comes hot on the heels of a 61-13 thrashing at Cardiff Blues.

The Dragons also endured a losing start – 29-23 against Connacht in Galway – but are hot favourites to romp to success against a side deprived of 12 players in the Azzurri's World Cup squad.

But backs coach Shaun Connor insists nobody at Rodney Parade will be taking their opponents lightly, especially after being turned over when the sides met in Parma last season.

"Zebre didn't perform very well last weekend but we know that there will be a reaction from them on Friday," said the former fly-half.

"They are a proud bunch and will be up for it so it's up to us to be more accurate and clinical than we were in Connacht. Zebre will be hurting from the result against the Blues so we need a strong opening 20 minutes.

"They are not going to roll over for us so we must focus on things that we can control; when we get in good positions we need to come away with points.

"Last season in Italy was a bit of a warning and what I've said was relevant then – we didn't take them lightly but we got ourselves in good positions, created opportunities but weren't clinical.

"Give teams like Zebre a sniff and they can come back and hurt you."

The Dragons will be boosted by the return of back row forward Lewis Evans after he sat out the opener because of an elbow injury while Tyler Morgan is in contention for a start after a cameo off the bench in Galway following his release from the Wales squad.

"We were hoping we wouldn't have Tyler with us, unfortunately he come back a little bit earlier but he is busting to get out on the field again this weekend," said Connor.

"He has been excellent since he has come back and seems to have matured over the summer from training with better players and picking things up off them."