DRAGONS coach Hendre Marnitz says the impending arrival of Josh Lewis should fire up the region’s fly-halves for the rest of the season.

The 25-year-old from Merthyr has signed a two-year contract to head to Rodney Parade from Bath, who he joined last summer after catching the eye with Ebbw Vale in the Principality Premiership.

The Dragons have given game time to a quartet of 10s this season – Gavin Henson, Angus O’Brien, Dorian Jones and Arwel Robson.

The second year of Henson’s contract was automatically triggered by hitting an appearance target (he is currently on 14) while Jones, who started for the first time since September at Bordeaux-Begles last weekend, has another season on his deal.

O’Brien started at full-back in France and Henson came off the bench, with Marnitz believing everyone has a point to prove.

“Those three, knowing that we’ve got a new recruit for next season, have to put a marker down,” said the South African, not including the injured Robson.

“I always say that you can sign the world but if the boy in the seat performs well then it’s difficult for the newbie to come in.

“Those three will read the newspapers and know that there’s a newbie coming in, so they need to make sure that they look after themselves.”

Henson featured in France for the first time since being dropped for an under-par performance against Cardiff Blues on Boxing Day.

The 35-year-old tweeted that he needed to be more physical after being bumped off in a tackle and has been grafting hard in training.

“Gav in the last couple of weeks has worked on things that he felt he needed to improve on, we look forward to seeing him kick on before the season ends,” said Marnitz.

“He did a bit of work with me, (contact coach) Rhys Thomas, (backs coach) Shaun Connor and has really worked very hard to fix a few things.

“He felt that his collision work was poor so we did tackle technique, he did work with ‘TRT’ at the breakdown and kicking with Shaun.

“I think that shows Gav’s ambition because a lot of people probably would have left it but he knows what a pro needs to do and felt that he let himself down so jumped in to work hard.”

The Dragons take on Bordeaux in their Pool One finale in the Challenge Cup on Saturday afternoon needing a bonus-point victory, with the French side failing to get any consolation, if they are to stand a chance of sneaking into the quarter-finals.

Head coach Bernard Jackman is waiting on the fitness of flanker James Benjamin and wing Ashton Hewitt after they were forced off in the 36-28 loss at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Number eight/blindside James Sheekey is back in contention following a shoulder injury but options are limited by a lengthy injury list and the need to pick from the registered European squad.

Hooker/loosehead Gerard Ellis is still out with whiplash while flanker Ben Roach and full-back Will Talbot-Davies are with Wales 7s ahead of the legs in Australia and New Zealand.

The Dragons had to use loosehead Sam Hobbs as cover for tighthead Lloyd Fairbrother last week because Nicky Thomas is not registered for Europe and Brok Harris (shoulder) and Leon Brown (concussion) are out.