Dragons to sign on-loan full-back Ioan Davies from Cardiff

The 21-year-old is currently on loan at Rodney Parade from Cardiff and made his debut against his parent club at the Arms Park last month.

Davies made further Rainbow Cup appearances against the Ospreys and Glasgow Warriors and has been in talks over making the move permanent.

The former Wales Under-20s international arrived on loan in February and has impressed with his ability and attitude in training before finally getting his chance out in the middle.

MOVE: Full-back Ioan Davies is set to sign a permanent deal with the Dragons

Director of rugby Dean Ryan said that negotiations have been "very positive" and was impressed by the prospect's performance in the 27-16 loss to Glasgow.

"Ioan was outstanding," he said. "We've got young players getting experiences out there that was a game where you needed to be on the money and get a lot right.

"He has good feet, is powerful but just has to make decisions quicker, although he hasn't played a huge amount of rugby [because of the pandemic].

"In age-grade he probably has five seconds and now he has 0.5 seconds, we'll keep talking to him to make those decisions quicker and trust his instincts rather than trying to work out if it's the right move.

"He did that really well against Glasgow, which was a very different game to under-18s and under-20s rugby. If you hesitate then someone is on you so that's a great experience."

MOVE: Full-back Ioan Davies is set to sign a permanent deal with the Dragons

With Will Talbot-Davies on the comeback trail from a serious knee injury, Davies will battle Jordan Williams for the start at 15.

Ryan also has fly-half Josh Lewis and wings Jonah Holmes and Owen Jenkins as options at full-back.

Twice-capped Wales international Dafydd Howells was given a one-year contract extension last summer but the 26-year-old is set to be released.

The Dragons have so far only added Will Rowlands to their squad for the 2021/22 campaign and, remarkably, are still waiting for confirmation about their playing budget.

The figure hinges on how much the Welsh Rugby Union commits to the four professional sides.

Ryan's squad finish their season at Leinster a week on Friday when they will play in front of supporters.

All of the Dragons' games in the current campaign have been behind closed doors but they will experience crowd noise for the first time since the loss to Benetton at Rodney Parade on March 6, 2020.

The Rainbow Cup fixture at the Royal Dublin Society has been selected as a pilot event for the safe return of crowds in Ireland and 1,200 Leinster supporters will head through the turnstiles.