Sarel Pretorius set for Dragons bow against Scarlets at Rodney Parade

The South African scrum-half, who arrived late last month after his Super Rugby commitments with the Cheetahs, watched from the sidelines as his new teammates beat Nottingham 48-12 at Ystrad Mynach last Friday.

But the 31-year-old is likely to play in the pre-season derby while his compatriot lock Rynard Landman will also have a first hit-out of the summer and centre Jack Dixon will feature after being released from the Wales World Cup squad.

The Dragons will use the same approach as they did against Nottingham when they used 32 players and changed almost their entire XV at half-time.

Director of rugby Lyn Jones has been in contact with his Scarlets counterpart Wayne Pivac to establish the mixture of youth and experience that will be used by both sides.

"A lot of hard work has gone in over the last 10 weeks so players need to be rewarded with an opportunity to show us what they can do," said head coach Kingsley Jones.

"Some players we need to see play, others need to play to get up to scratch and combinations – centres, half-backs, back row – are important.

"The Cardiff Blues game is where we start looking for more continuity and game time on field for certain people."

Wales boss Warren Gatland talked about the challenges of working with a 47-strong training group before making his first cut and Jones is currently sharing that welcome headache.

"It's difficult coaching 43 players in a team session, although it's a nice problem to have and we are incorporating the likes of Harri Keddie, Luke Garrett, Keagan Bale and Alex Jeffries from Wales Under-20s," he said.

"We were out there for a bit too long in a team session on Tuesday because we have players doing things for the first time and others for the thousandth.

"There is a mixed level of ability and experience that makes things a challenge but I don't want to complain because last September I was complaining that we only had 22."