DRAGONS fly half Sam Davies has called on his teammates to make Rodney Parade a fortress this season ahead of their opening home game of the campaign.

The Newport side host Zebre on Friday (kick off 8.15pm) with both teams searching for their first points of the new PRO14 season.

Davies said a positive start at home would be crucial as Dragons look to build on last season’s progress.

READ MORE:

“If you look at last season we lost at home to Zebre and Benetton, albeit missing a few key guys, but they are the games that if we were winning last year it knocks us up the table a couple of places,” he said.

“That is what we are looking at this season. If we can win in our derby games, like we did last year, and win our other games at home then we are going in the right direction.

“We don’t want to set targets for this season, but we want to make sure we are winning our home games.

“If we can do that then it will be a good step forward for us as Dragons.”

Davies said that Dragons will start as favourites against the Italian outfit, but must produce if the team is to continue to make strides this campaign.

However, after losing the corresponding fixture last season, he said the team are well aware of the threat Zebre will pose.

“We are not taking this game lightly,” said the playmaker. “We know we are expected to win, that comes after making strides forward last season.

“We are confident we can do that, but we have got to get things right in terms of our territorial game and accuracy, which we didn’t quite against Leinster.

“If you look at the ball in play time (against Leinster) it was 40 minutes, so that is quite high,” he added. “I think we are going to look to try and keep that ball in play as high as possible for this game, but on our terms.

“You can almost get caught up against some teams thinking that you will just run away with the game, but they are very strong opposition and hold a lot of internationals themselves.

“Early on in the game you have to stay clean and play a territorial game. Then hopefully, in the last 20 or 15 minutes, that’s when you can capitalise.”