PAUL Turner blames lack of form and injuries for the failure of Newport Gwent Dragons to get more than one player in the Wales squad for the Six Nations Championship which starts next month.

Prop Rhys Thomas is the sole Dragons player in new coach Warren Gatland's smaller-than-usual 28-man squad, with Kevin Morgan, Ceri Sweeney, Michael Owen and Colin Charvis all missing out.

"It's disappointing a lot of our boys haven't made the Wales squad, but because of lack of form and injuries it's not really surprising," said Turner.

"Because of a lack of consistency people like Owen and Sweeney will be out to prove a point, though not so much Charvis who's pretty consistent anyway.

"I always said the senior players would have to take the bull by the horns because we've got so many young guys coming through."

Asked whether he was unhappy that Gatland had not actually watched a live Dragons match since taking over as Wales coach, Turner replied "I expect he's probably watched the videos."

Turner expects the attitude to be spot on against Perpignan in Saturday's Heineken Cup tie at Rodney Parade when the French team need a victory to be sure of booking a quarter-final place.

He promises there will be no repeat of the dire first half against London Irish last week.

"We owe it to ourselves to start retrieving things at Rodney Parade. The first half last week wasn't pretty at all and the body language of a lot of players left a lot to be desired," he said.

"A neutral would have thought it was a good game but we don't do defensive work all week for it to go to pieces.

"We aim not to disappoint Perpignan and key players need to get after them. We can unsettle anyone at Rodney Parade, but the problem has been when we get A and B right, C and D will go wrong.

"Without question last year we had that doggedness and we rarely got beaten there, but we're in a different competition this year where there's a lot more quality.

"Perpignan are full of world stars and Percy Montgomery is a fine player who gave the region great balance on the left side and has always been quality.

"But we need a little more self belief. We're missing Rhodri Gomer Davies, Dan Lydiate, Luke Charteris and Richard Parks who may not be big names, but Dan is a huge miss for us.

"We are still rocked by injuries. If someone had said we would have got to this situation last week (15 players were injured) I'd have been shocked.

"The injuries have all come at once. We should have beaten Treviso, but we need to win.

"Whether it's Bucharest or Biarritz it makes no difference, all people here want is a win."