Dragons must tighten up leaky defence (From South Wales Argus)

Dragons must tighten up leaky defence

11:00am Saturday 18th February 2012 in Dragons By Chris Kirwan

IT’S with some relief that it isn’t the desire to clamber off the bottom of the RaboDirect Pro12 table that is fuelling Newport Gwent Dragons tonight.

Aironi’s loss to the Ospreys last night means that the Dragons remain in 11th place ahead of the encounter with Edinburgh at Rodney Parade.

But that is not cause for celebration.

The Dragons need to climb the table and their home form is key – six of their nine remaining fixtures are in Newport.

First up are Edinburgh, who are enjoying a stellar season in the Heineken Cup and one to forget in the Pro12.

The Gunners will host Toulouse in the last eight of Europe after winning five of their group games. That is one more victory than they have managed in the league.

But the Dragons need to up their game after being beaten 30-12 by Ulster in Belfast last week.

“Edinburgh will come here to play attacking, multi-phase rugby,” said head coach Darren Edwards.

“That will test us defensively and we will need to be much better in that area than were at Ulster last week.

“We conceded some really soft tries and players were making basic errors.

“Edinburgh will provide a real examination of us when they have the ball and concentration and sticking to our defensive systems is vital.”

The Dragons will be looking for a big performance from Samoan outside centre Andy Tuilagi, whose inclusion sees Adam Hughes shifted to the right wing.

Tuilagi was desperately short of fitness when he arrived at Rodney Parade in October after seven months on the sidelines with a broken arm.

He weighed in at 124kgs – heavier than any member of the Wales squad – but has worked that figure down to 113kgs, two short of his fighting weight.

Tuilagi is partnered in midfield by captain Ashley Smith, who Edwards hopes can get the three-quarters firing and help cure their white line fever.

The Dragons have scored just 12 league tries, the lowest in the Pro12 and only two more than Edinburgh winger Tim Visser has managed on his own. Only Worcester’s tally of 11 is worse in the top three European leagues.

“Ashley runs our game plan and is a great player for the coaching team to have out in the middle,” he said.

“He is a such an important figure and really helps the back line function. He is a leader and a massive presence in the squad.”

The Dragons hand a 100th appearance to departing wing Aled Brew while Lewis Evans makes a welcome return from a calf injury at blindside flanker.

Lock Adam Jones (ankle) and scrum-half Wayne Evans (back) miss out with their starting spots filled by Jevon Groves and Joe Bedford respectively.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh give a first start to wing Sep Visser, brother of Tim, and must cope without the calming influence of former Scotland full-back Chris Paterson who has suffered a groin injury.

The Scottish outfit were beaten 15-14 by the Ospreys at Murrayfield last weekend and their win in Treviso is their sole away success so far this season.