DEAN Ryan has warned his Dragons squad they will face a physical fortnight even though they don’t have Champions Cup rugby to play.

The Rodney Parade region were meant to be hosting Bordeaux-Begles in the top-tier tournament on Sunday before rounding off the competition at Wasps a week on Saturday.

However, Champions Cup and Challenge Cup fixtures have been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dragons had a light day on Monday in which they reviewed their 28-20 Guinness PRO14 defeat to the Ospreys.

Ryan and his squad would normally start stepping up preparations for their next opponent on Tuesday the schedule has changes – although the Dragons will not be going through the motions in Ystrad Mynach.

South Wales Argus:

“We will train and we will train physically in this period,” said the director of rugby. “We have guys hopefully going off to international duty at the end of January and we have got lots to get better at that we will be working on.

“We were planning for playing in Europe now we are working hard to be ready for PRO14.”

The Dragons headed into the derby period after back-to-back away wins against Benetton and Glasgow.

However, they suffered a derby whitewash in which they recorded a solitary bonus point against Cardiff Blues. It leaves them fourth in Conference A, eight points behind the Ospreys with a game in hand.

The Dragons are next in action on Friday, February 5 when they entertain Connacht in the PRO14 and they host Edinburgh the following week.

It has been suggested that the league could look to fill a blank weekend before those fixtures. 

The remaining fixtures will be released soon once broadcasters have chosen slots with Ryan’s men facing Confernce A rivals Leinster, Zebre, the Ospreys, Ulster and Glasgow in reverse fixtures of those already played.