LEON Brown could return from Six Nations duty to give the Dragons a boost against Edinburgh this weekend – but the Wales star will have to share the action with in-form Lloyd Fairbrother.

Tighthead Brown featured off the bench in all five of Wales’ games in the Championship and will hope to celebrate a title victory on Friday evening.

The 24-year-old from Newport has made huge strides at the set piece to go along with his athleticism around the park but still might have to play second fiddle on Sunday.

The Dragons host Edinburgh in the Guinness PRO14 at Principality Stadium with the aim of overtaking fourth-placed Glasgow in Conference A to potentially qualify for next season’s Champions Cup.

The fixture with the Scots is followed by a mouth-watering clash against Northampton in the last 16 of the European Challenge Cup and Brown is not a shoo-in to face the Saints.

Fairbrother is enjoying a superb run of form and was to the fore in Sunday’s comeback win against Glasgow, when he had scrum dominance and stayed on for the full 80 minutes along with hooker Richard Hibbard.

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The 29-year-old Cornishman is a genuine contender for the 3 jersey and his exploits mean that Brown, who hasn’t started a game since January 9 will be part of a double act.

“Lloyd is coming into his own,” said director of rugby Dean Ryan. “He is able to hold a scrum and create pressure, but his work rate and ability to get off the line and make tackles has also really grown.

“Lloyd is becoming a mainstay in the side. Leon has made a big impact away with Wales so him coming back and that being a combination is really positive for us.”

Wales star Aaron Wainwright could also be an option for the clash with Edinburgh after being a travelling reserve in Paris on Saturday evening.

He could replace Ollie Griffiths in the XV after the back rower suffered an arm injury in the opening exchanges against Glasgow.

South Wales Argus: IMPRESSIVE: Ben Fry came back strongly from a yellow cardIMPRESSIVE: Ben Fry came back strongly from a yellow card

However, Ryan could also opt to reward Ben Fry for a fine display off the bench after a nightmare introduction that saw him sin-binned for a no-arms tackle.

“Ben showed a good level of maturity after being yellow-carded because then that's a long old stretch with no other back rowers,” said the boss.

“We couldn't make a change to take him out of the heat and he had to stay physical. It would have been another lesson for him about playing at the highest level and how he needs to manage himself, so credit to him.”