DORIAN Jones says the onus is on the Newport Gwent Dragons players to fire up the Rodney Parade faithful with running rugby against Ulster on Sunday (kick-off 2.30pm).

The Dragons have endured a sticky start to the Guinness Pro12 with four away losses and two uninspiring victories against Zebre and Treviso in Newport.

They are yet to concede a try on home turf but have failed to shine in attack with just two scores for their fans to cheer, both from driving lineouts.

Rodney Parade can be an intimidating venue but fly-half Jones, who has been given the all clear a blow to the head in the opening stages of last week’s 25-15 loss at the Scarlets, knows the players must play their part.

Last season the ground was jumping when Ulster were downed 26-22 with the Dragons scoring one of the tries of the season when Ashton Hewitt ran back a kick, Hallam Amos dumped Springboks ace Ruan Pienaar on his backside with a hand-off and then Carl Meyer dived over in the corner.

“It was a really exciting day and a great game to be involved in,” said Jones. “The crowd were brilliant, they got behind us and were nice and loud because we played good rugby.

“Hopefully we can repeat that on Sunday and I am sure the fans would like us to run everything! We can’t do that but we have been working on moving the ball more and playing positively, which we did against Ulster last year and got the rewards.

“There’s a big team coming to Rodney Parade and we need to put in a big performance and play positively.”

Ulster are poised to bring their World Cup stars back as they prepare for the start of their European Champions Cup campaign but the Dragons can take confidence from beating the men from Belfast on their last two trips to Rodney Parade.

“They are a very good side and we’ve got a lot of respect for them but we know we can beat the top sides – we did that last season and need to start doing it again,” said Jones.

“But lots of improvements are needed from last week against the Scarlets. We have to keep the ball more, cut out the errors, go through the phases and make Ulster make tackles.”

The Dragons and Ulster name their teams at midday with the hosts sweating on the fitness of openside Nic Cudd. Ollie Griffiths, the star of last season’s Wales Under-20s side, is ready to deputise.