Ollie Griffiths deserves to be with Wales - Dragons coach

The 25-year-old from Newbridge has made a sensational return from a hamstring injury despite the Dragons suffering a pair of defeats to Irish provinces.

Griffiths was arguably the only player to leave Ulster with his reputation intact after a dynamic display in Belfast.

The number eight backed up that display with another influential performance against Munster, getting through a mountain of work alongside flankers Harrison Keddie and Ben Fry.

Griffiths missed the first two rounds of the campaign but is first in the PRO14 for turnovers with seven, he has made 36 tackles without a miss, racked up 27 carries and offloaded four times.

After Wales spluttered in the absence of Josh Navidi and Ross Moriarty in defeat to France and Scotland, Griffiths would undoubtedly add some oomph to the national squad.

The back rower made his only Test appearance with an extremely brief cameo against Tonga in 2017 and featured in the uncapped fixture against the Barbarians last season.

Injury misfortune has frequently hindered the Dragons talisman but he has shown his quality over the past fortnight.

When asked if Griffiths could step in for Wales in the coming weeks, coach Gordon Ross joked: “No! Ollie is not playing well enough, he can stay at the Dragons for a few more weeks at least and then we can worry about Wales!

“He has been absolutely outstanding. His contributions in the game, his leadership has been excellent through the week and he puts his body through an unbelievable amount of work.

“Ollie has come in and been outstanding twice in a row for 80 minutes on the back of not playing any rugby for six months.

“Hopefully he can stay with for the next few weeks because he deserves to be playing at a higher level the way that he is going.

“We’ll rest him up well for a short turnaround to Connacht on Saturday, who will be fresh after their game was postponed. We’ve got to dust ourselves down.”

Griffiths was flying solo against Ulster in a one-sided clash in Belfast but the rest of the pack put in a dramatically improved display against Munster.

GRAFTER: Harrison Keddie

Keddie has started six of seven games since the August resumption and earned the praise of stand-in boss Ross.

“Harrison has been absolutely outstanding. He has put his body on the line and came away from Leinster barely being able to see out of his eye,” said the former Scotland fly-half.

“The way that the game is going around the breakdown you need your back rowers to put their bodies on the line, and they have done that all season.”