HEAD coach Kingsley Jones insists the Newport Gwent Dragons players will need no motivating as they attempt to bounce back from their European mauling with victory on Judgement Day.

Jones says the whole squad is desperate to put things right after what he described as a “really poor” performance in the European Rugby Challenge Cup semi.

The Dragons were beaten 45-16 in the last four by Edinburgh at Murrayfield last Friday night and were second best throughout.

But Jones says he and director of rugby Lyn Jones will not need to inspire anyone for Saturday’s derby clash with the Scarlets at the Millennium Stadium.

“We’ve tried not to look back at Edinburgh too much,” he said.

“We play them again in a fortnight’s time and the big plus for us is that we play at the Millennium Stadium this week and we play Edinburgh again the week after.

“After the poor performance we had last week you can’t ask for two better fixtures for the players and for all of us.

“It was a bad night for us but we’ve got three games left and we don’t want the season to peter away,” he added.

“There’s no need for any coach to motivate the players for the next two games – to play at the Millennium Stadium and then Edinburgh again.

“It’s a derby match – a big day for everyone – and then the chance to put things right, I suppose, against Edinburgh at home.”

Jones believes a lack of time to prepare the squad goes some way to explaining the manner of the defeat in the Scottish capital.

“It really is a hard turnaround to beat Leinster on a Sunday and then go up to Edinburgh on a Friday and I think our poor preparation contributed to the performance,” he explained.

“If it was one aspect of the game then you’d think ‘we’ve been caught’ but it was every aspect of the game – we were really poor.

“Our scrum was poor but everything was poor and we’ve got to be better this week.

“We’re lucky to get a chance to refocus this week and to play in the Millennium Stadium in front of 50,000 people,” he added.

“The boys will be up for it. There are a lot of Welsh boys in our team and a lot of them will be looking to put their hand up I’m sure, thinking they’ve got an outside chance of inclusion in the [Wales] squad.

“The other regions, sides like the Ospreys, have players who play there regularly. We’ve got Toby [Faletau].

“But we’ve got to rise to it and the players have an opportunity to show what they can do. It should be a great day for Welsh rugby.”