COACH James Chapron believes the Dragons’ win against Worcester has given boss Bernard Jackman some selection headaches for the return of the Guinness PRO14.

The Rodney Parade region triumphed against the Warriors 33-27 in the Anglo-Welsh Cup thanks to Wales centre Tyler Morgan’s late try after earlier scores by centre Jarryd Sage, full-back Ashton Hewitt, fly-half Zane Kirchner and scrum-half Sarel Pretorius.

The victory in an entertaining clash backed up the home success against Bordeaux-Begles in the European Challenge Cup and leads into a February on Gwent soil in the PRO14 with Glasgow and Benetton Treviso heading to Newport before the fixture with Edinburgh in Ebbw Vale.

“Some of the boys, particularly the younger ones, held their hands up and we want competition in the squad,” said academy manager Chapron, who was part of Jackman’s management team for the development tournament.

“From my point of view with the academy, I want the players to hold up their hands for selection as soon as possible so it was a good night.”

Arguably Jackman will be most pleased by the return from lengthy injuries of three senior players with Kirchner and Keddie backing up their comebacks against Saracens the previous week and Morgan featuring off the bench for the first time since October.

“Zane is growing into it. He played 10 many years ago apparently and is a talented footballer," said Chapron, with the former Springboks full-back playing an unfamiliar position.

“His experience gives him confidence and some of his touch kicking was fantastic, getting every centimetre out of his kick, while he doesn’t make as many errors as perhaps we have done recently.

“(Head of physiotherapy) Ben Stirling has done a fantastic job with the boys returning from injury, Keddie hasn’t played in months because of a shoulder injury and has come through two physical games.

“Credit to the medical team but also Harrison for how he has applied himself – back row is going to be a really tough selection moving forward.

“And it’s great to have Tyler back on the field, he is a quality player and that showed with a line break out of nothing. There is some serious pace in our outside backs.

“Our back three can run over 10 metres per second, which is very quick, so we want to play rugby that excites the crowd. Ashton’s finish was fantastic for that first-phase try that was straight off the training ground to be fair to Barry Maddocks.”

The Dragons had to dig deep for victory against a youthful and enterprising Warriors side and the performance was much-improved on the 40-21 defeat at Sarries.

“We are really pleased to get the win, the boys really dug in for each other. We asked for two things in the week, energy and physicality, and the boys brought that throughout the game,” said Chapron.

“We were more accurate than last week at Saracens and didn’t turn over the ball as easily. We didn’t give them as much time and space defensively while some of our outside backs’ skills to finish tries was exceptional.

“It gives us confidence and gets the show back on the road. Winning breeds better training in the week and we are looking forward to seeing how the boys come in on Monday and build towards Glasgow.”