NEWPORT Gwent Dragons coach Mike Ruddock is backing his team to beat the odds and continue to upstage their Welsh rugby regional rivals.

All of the regions except Gwent will have buoyant Welsh players returning from World Cup duty for the next round of Celtic League games.

They will carry with them the message of national coach Steve Hansen and WRU chief executive David Moffett to take their new-found confidence into their regions' Celtic League and Heineken Cup campaigns.

But Ruddock is unfazed at the prospect and when asked if the Welsh stars' returns would make things tougher for him in the weeks ahead, replied 'no'.

Asked to expand on his answer, he added: "We've always known it would be tougher when other teams got their players back.

"But I still think we are playing good enough rugby to beat teams even when they are at full strength, so I don't see a problem. It was tough three months ago when everyone was against us and we had to start from scratch and gel.

"I've got Rod Snow, Michael Owen, Ross Beattie plus Percy Montgomery to come back and I've got Andy Marinos who is injured at the moment.

"So I don't think those five players will disadvantage us and if we keep playing like we are at the moment they'll all have to play for their places.

"Certainly in terms of other teams getting players back, they've still got to gel them in and get them over the World Cup situation and back into regional rugby.

"Then they are perhaps going to lose a lot of them for the Six Nations again, so I don't think we'll be disadvantaged.

"We've picked our squad on budget and, from what I've been told, the least expensive squad of all five, and there is a lot of unity and team spirit there.

"We've got a job to do, we've always believed we were capable of doing it against the odds and we'll continue to do that.

"We're not saying we're the best team in the league, we're not saying we're the best squad, but we are saying we'll be competitive.

"That's what we've been so far and that's what we'll continue to be even when these teams get their stars back.

"But we've still got some other difficult hurdles to cross before we worry about other teams anyway (referring to the financial problems)."

The Dragons' next match is at home to Connacht in the Celtic League on Sunday, November 23 (2.30pm).

They expect to have Canada World Cup player Snow, Scotland World Cup performer Beattie and Owen available for selection for that match.

Snow returned to training this week, Beattie (pictured right) is back next week and Owen is gradually stepping up his training after returning from a back injury.

With no match this weekend, the Dragons enjoyed some training with a difference this week and attended the Pontypool gym of new Welsh national boxing coach Tony Williams.

"The whole squad was involved in sparring and with cardio-vascular and other work and enjoyed the change of scenery and activity," said Ruddock (pictured above).

"This week we are concentrating a bit more on fitness and rugby drills."

Ruddock himself is off for a short break to Ireland while off, perhaps for good, at the end of the week is Llanharan coach Denis John, who has been taking the backs in the absence of Clive Griffiths on Wales World Cup duty.

"Denis will return to Llanharan with huge thanks from myself personally and from Gwent rugby and all the boys for the work he's done," said Ruddock.

"As and when things might change financially there may be a place for him further down the line, but at the moment there's obviously no finance to allow for that."

Newport coach Leigh Jones remains on board as skills coach for the foreseeable future with the Dragons hoping to get objective one funding from Europe to keep him involved in the New Year.