SIX members of the Newport Gwent Dragons team will be involved in Wales squad training for the autumn internationals - but one of them will almost certainly have to pull out.
The six of the best are backs Hal Luscombe, Ceri Sweeney and Gareth Cooper and forwards Michael Owen, Luke Charteris and Richard Bryan, though Bryan may not have a full squad role yet.
But Luscombe is out of the early training and may even miss the start of the November games after damaging a shoulder in injury time helping the Dragons to an outstanding 38-29 victory over Glasgow at Hughenden on Friday night.
Luscombe was taken to hospital after the game and the injury was diagnosed as a damaged A/C joint. His arm is in a sling and he will be out for four to six weeks.
He has been on fire at outside centre for the Dragons this season and regularly took two Glasgow players out with his direct running.
"It's a big blow especially as I had been playing the best rugby in my time with Newport and the backs are looking really good," he said.
But hard nosed Dragons coach Chris Anderson took a typically different view. It had changed from "It's only a headache" on Friday night to "It's not that bad, you don't run on your shoulder!" by Saturday morning.
Bryan, an Englishman qualifying for Wales, will also miss the early Welsh training as he injured a knee against Glasgow and is probably out of Friday night's game against Leinster at Rodney Parade.
Owen was a certainty for the Wales squad and, as reported in last Friday's Argus, is even an outsider for the captaincy, though there are no squad places for locks Ian Gough and Peter Sidoli and even more surprisingly skipper Jason Forster.
Instead, young giant Charteris gets in, though he has hardly featured for the Dragons. He injured a hamstring in Wales training last week and is highly rated by Wales and former Dragons coach Mike Ruddock.
Cooper, who showed some brilliant touches against Glasgow, and half back partner Sweeney were squad certainties, though Sweeney has yet to really settle despite scoring 15 points in each of his last two Dragons appearances.
Cooper scored the try five minutes from the end of normal time at Hughenden which turned the tide after the Dragons trailed 29-25 and were being blown out of the match by the referee.
He ghosted our for a lovely solo try as the Dragons came back strongly with 13 points in six minutes to clinch victory and secure their first bonus point of the season.
"Michael Owen put me over on the left side and I had a free run in, it was the first time I had hold of the ball," said Cooper modestly.
"It's a new side and we are still bonding, but we're improving with every game. If we keep that up we can do things this season.
"We showed good touches when we spread the ball and we looked dangerous. We could have scored more.
"I was delighted with my first start, now I need some more games under my belt. I couldn't quite get into it against Glasgow, I couldn't get the ball but then I had a chance to show what I could do.
"My biggest battle will be to get the number nine jersey for the Dragons because Gareth Baber had an excellent season and started this one on a roll.
"Chris Anderson has brought in a lot of new ideas and is the first to admit he doesn't know the intricacies of rugby union, but he's going to be a brilliant coach.
"He's brought in a few rugby league tactics on how to break down defences and he wants to bring a hard edge to the forwards."
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