DRAGONS coach Paul Turner has hailed the return of Welsh star Ceri Sweeney as a major boost for his side's bid to secure Heineken Cup qualification for the region next season.

Sweeney missed the entire Six Nations campaign with a groin injury but made an impressive return for the Dragons in their defeat at Celtic League leaders Ulster, his sharp break setting up a last-minute try for Hal Luscombe that secured what could be a vital losing bonus point.

"It was great to have Ceri back," said Turner. "We felt we didn't give him enough quality ball - he is a great passer of the ball and creates things around him and releases runners like Luscombe and (Nathan) Brew - so we brought on Jon Bryant to give us a bit more direct ball and Ceri turned up with a crucial break for the try to give us a losing bonus point.

"It is important to have him back and we will have Ian Gough and Michael Owen back for the Munster game. We are quite happy at the way we dug in at the second half against Ulster but we will need to look at a number of things for the campaign ahead.

"We came off second best in the contact situation, the tackle area, restarts and although our scrum didn't disintegrate, our channels were all wrong.

"These are areas that Munster will look to exploit. We have got to start picking up results otherwise things will move away from us. It is not easy.

"We didn't have a game for five weeks and I think we were surprised at the intensity in the first half of the game on Saturday night.

"You have to take your hat off to Ulster. They don't have a lot of stars but they are well drilled and well disciplined."