NEWPORT Gwent Drag-ons coach Paul Turner has major selection problems to confront this week as they go into Europe and entertain Bayonne in the first round of the Challenge Cup competition on Friday night.

Turner and fellow coaches Dai Rees and Leigh Jones spent just about all their waking hours after the disappointing 16-9 defeat by Connacht in Galway poring over the video of the match and highlighting the problems.

They were dismayed at the performance of half backs Gareth Cooper and Ceri Sweeney even if the Dragons lacked a dominant middle jumper, while the link between hooker Ben Daly and either Peter Sidoli or Luke Charteris was not what it should have been.

The Dragons should have put the Irish team away in a 15-minute first half spell playing into the wind when they were camped on the opposition line and twice even got over it, but Aled Brew and Nic Fitisemanu were both held up by superior weight of numbers.

Nevertheless, wrong options were taken by the half backs and their kicking game was poor with the ball going out of play when it should have stayed in and vice-versa.

Sweeney's bravery in defence, on the other hand, is not in question, while his goal kicking is first rate, his league total now standing at 62 points from five games. He kicked three penalties from three attempts against Connacht.

But neither he nor Cooper in the two full games he has played since his return from a dislocated shoulder have been able to dictate the pattern of play, which is worrying the coaches. There could well be changes for the Bayonne game.

The Dragons have also lost two key members of their front row, with hooker Steve Jones needing a shoulder operation which will sideline him for six months and tight head prop Rhys Thomas suffering from a chest injury.

The Dragons' losing bonus point against Connacht and Cardiff Blues' heavy defeat in Ulster keeps them ahead of their Welsh rivals in the league table in seventh position, the Dragons on 11 points and the Blues on 10.

Meanwhile, the Dragons hold their first board meeting this week since the arrival of Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Steve Lewis on the board.

- Dragons number eight Michael Owen, who could start his first game of the season since returning from a shoulder operation against Bayonne, has been chosen to play for a World XV against South Africa at Leicester's Walker Stadium on December 2 in a match to mark 100 years of touring by the Springboks.

The Dragons play Worcester away that day in the EDF Energy Anglo-Welsh Cup, but because both teams are already out of the competition the Dragons have released Owen.