FLY-HALF Jason Tovey is set to return to pull the strings for Newport Gwent Dragons in Friday’s RaboDirect Pro12 clash against Ulster.

The 22-year-old is expected to leave the Dragons for Cardiff Blues in the summer with his agent saying that a verbal agreement had been reached with the capital-based region.

Tovey has not featured since the January 21 Amlin Challenge Cup win against Cavalieri Prato because the development of Steffan Jones and Lewis Robling was the priority in the LV= Cup.

However, he will return at Ravenhill on Friday as the 10th-placed Dragons attempt to climb the RaboDirect Pro12 table and push away from bottom club Aironi, who are just a win away.

Head coach Darren Edwards will be looking for Tovey, who needs just 35 more points to take over from Ceri Sweeney as the region’s top points scorer, to control matters in Belfast.

“Jason is a professional player, his attitude has been spot-on in training and we need to pick our best team,” said Edwards.

“We need to get the result in Ulster and this is an important block of games for us.

“I was hoping that we would be in a stronger position than we are in the Pro12 but that’s the way it goes and we have to respond.

“We do have a number of home games after doing some hard yards earlier on this season and it would be nice to get some reward for all of that work.”

The Dragons are without wingers Tonderai Chavhanga (rib) and Will Harries (hamstring) but both are set to return against Edinburgh next Saturday along with flanker Lewis Evans (calf).

However, the Dragons are set to be without centre Pat Leach for six to eight weeks after he fractured a bone in his left hand against the Ospreys in the LV= Cup.

Lock Adam Jones has trained lightly so his foot injury will not scupper a resumption of his second row partnership with Rob Sidoli.

Ulster are without Ireland players Andrew Trimble, Rory Best and Stephen Ferris while Dan Tuohy, Tom Court, Chris Henry and Paddy Wallace are also with the international squad, though they may be released.

Friday’s hosts are still able to call on South African ace Ruan Pienaar and powerful New Zealand prop John Afoa.

“The spine of their team is very good,” said Edwards.

“Ulster have key players like Pienaar, who is influential at the best of times but even more so when they are missing others.

“He has been real value for money and they have added serious quality with Afoa, they are showing real intent.

“But games against Ulster have been very tight, both at Ravenhill and Rodney Parade, and we are looking forward to Friday.”


Dragons squad: M Thomas, J Smith, A Brew, A Hughes, A Tuilagi, T Riley, A Smith, L Robling, J Tovey, J Bedford, W Evans, N Williams, P Price, S Jones, R Buckley, D Way, N Buck, R Sidoli, A Jones, J Groves, T Brown, H Ellis, R Jenkins, D Waters, G Thomas.


Ulster squad: A D’Arcy, C Cochrane, C Gaston, C Gilroy, S Terblanche, M Allen, N Spence, I Whitten, L Marshall, I Humphreys, I Porter, R Pienaar, P Marshall. C Black, A Macklin, J Afoa, J Cronin, P McAllister, A Kyriacou, N Brady, L Stevenson, J Miller, T Barker, N McComb, W Faloon, A Birch, M McComish, R Diack.