COACH Mike Ruddock feels that the Dragons next two games will decide the fate of the rest of their season. If they achieve victory over Leinster tonight and Llanelli next weekend then he feels that they are more then capable of going on to win the Celtic League.

But if they lose the next couple of games then Ruddock feels that they don't deserve to win the Celtic League and a major re-building of the squad in the summer could get underway.

"They are two important games for us and will determine the rest of our season.

"If we beat Leinster and achieve a positive result against Llanelli then who knows, I honestly feel as if we can challenge for the title this season.

"But if we don't win the next two games then we don't deserve to go on to lift the title and we'll start planing for next season."

The Dragons will be without Hal Luscombe who has recently been called in the Wales squad for the Six Nations.

And Ruddock has admitted that the loss of the South African born centre will be a huge loss. He said: "Hal is a huge loss to us because we don't really have anyone who can naturally play at outside centre.

"We have people who can step in such as Andy Marinos, who has done well in that role, Steve Winn and Percy Montgomery but we'll miss him in that position."

The Dragons are still unbeaten at home in the Celtic League and captain Andy Marinos is desperate that they keep that going tonight.

"We made Rodney Parade a bit of a fortress of late and after a few bad results in the Heineken Cup we'll be looking to get the show back on the road.

"Hopefully we can knuckle down, start brightly and despite the conditions play an attractive brand of rugby. I'm sure we can give them a tough game."

Leinster team: J Norton, J McWheeney, C Warner, D Quinlan, B Burke, B O'Meara, B O'Riordan, J Moran, G Hickie, P Coyle, A Kearney, B Gissing, S Crawford, K Potts, S Jennings (captain). Kick off 7.05.

l Percy Montgomery has accepted an invitation to play for the Barbarians against Wales as part of their challenge tour at Ashton Gate Bristol on May 26. The venue has caused controversy for taking the match outside Wales, but the Millennium Stadium is not available because of the FA Cup final.