Dragons showed tenacity in defence before securing a hard-fought win against Perpignan in Newport on Friday.

Filo Tiatia’s men have made a strong start to the season but that might not necessarily translate into a bigger contingent in Tandy’s squad.

Lock Ben Carter is a shoo-in, tight-head prop Dillon Lewis will hope to pick up where he left off in the summer and in-form hooker Elliot Dee would love to battle Dewi Lake and Ryan Elias for action.

The Perpignan fixture highlighted the qualities of Dragons’ grafters with blind-side flanker Shane Lewis-Hughes, who won three caps in 2020, continuing his strong start to the season.

Wales contact coach Dan Lydiate was a guest at Dragons training last week and would have been impressed as Lewis-Hughes put in 27 tackles against the French side’s big carriers.

But the forward, like team-mate Harri Keddie, is competing in a position of real depth.

The same applies for wing Rio Dyer, who is yet to score this season but has been lively with ball in hand and impressive in the aerial game.

Dragons’ man of the match against Perpignan was Aneurin Owen, so often the side’s glue from inside centre.

He carried strongly to go with his distribution skills, while he was strong in defence and came up with two turnovers.

Owen, who turns 26 the day before Tuesday’s squad announcement, was a member of the Wales squad under Wayne Pivac in the summer of 2021 but remains uncapped.

There might be an opening at 12 due to Ben Thomas’ injury should Tandy look to see if a quality operator at club level can take the next step.

“Aneurin knows I love him,” said Dragons boss Filo Tiatia. “He has outstanding leadership and there is lots more to come from him.

“He wants to improve, is coachable and is strong at challenging the coaches.”



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