NEWPORT Gwent Dragons are going to have to plunge Wales hooker Steve Jones back in for Friday's trip to Ireland and their second successive difficult away Celtic League game against Leinster at Donnybrook.

Jones had operations on both knees during the summer and the rehabilitation period took longer than expected, forcing him to miss all three pre-season friendlies and the first two Celtic League games of the season.

Kieran Crawford has deputised, but the shoulder he injured against Cornish Pirates finally gave out in the second half of last night's game against champions Ospreys, forcing him off the field.

He won't be fit for the Leinster game and with third choice Gethin Robinson of Newport, converting from a prop, not ready for that level, twice going astray with line-out throws last night and once late on in Glasgow, it means Jones is going to have to play on Friday.

He is believed to be nearly ready for a return, but it looks as though there is little choice as the Dragons continue to be troubled by injuries, Ceri Sweeney, Nathan Brew, Richard Fussell, Jones and Chris Anthony all missing, as well as British Lions Gareth Cooper and Michael Owen, though Cooper is also injured.

Sweeney continues to be troubled by a groin/lower abdomen injury and is out of the game against Leinster, the Dragons hoping he'll be back for their first home league game against Ulster a week on Saturday.

Fortunately Craig Warlow has been performing pretty well at outside half anyway.

Coach Paul Turner, forced to taste defeat for the first time with the Dragons last night after they lost 15-9 against the Ospreys, was by no means despondent.

"We'll lick our wounds and come back from this," he said. "We're going to have to improve, but there's a lot of spirit there.

"We promised the Ospreys a physical battle, but we couldn't hold on to the ball long enough. We made too many errors, but we're without a lot of players and these youngsters are going to have to live with their mistakes.

"The penalty count was way against us and I'll have to look at the video to see whether there was a knock on for their first try. Kevin (Morgan) thought he was impeded when he was sin binned and I'm unsure why Jamie (Ringer) was sin binned.

"We lost two key line-outs near the end which killed us otherwise we could have snatched it. It's quite a good changing room because the players realise they could have won it if they'd taken those chances."