NEWPORT head coach Ian Hembrow is looking for his side's set piece to lay the foundations for a league double over Swansea at Rodney Parade on Sunday.

The Black and Ambers host the All Whites in a game moved back 24 hours because of the Dragons' Heineken Cup encounter with Perpignan and the likelihood is that it will be a real boggy battle.

The weather has been foul all week and nobody, including the French visitors, has been able to train on the Parade pitch.

A surface taking its second game in 24 hours is hardly going to resemble that of the athletic club's bowling green 100 yards away, so Hembrow is looking to his pack to do the dirty work.

"We dominated the set piece when we played them in Swansea earlier in the season and got our reward with a penalty try which helped us get the bonus point," said Hembrow.

"In this weather it does become more important and it is crucial to get the early edge. It has been an area of our game that has been strong throughout the season and we will be aiming to capitalise on that.

"We struggled in the scrum against Aberavon last week, but the line-out was superb and provided us with some quality ball. We are looking for more of the same on Sunday."

The defeat at the Talbot Athletic Ground was one that Newport could easily have avoided and Hembrow was pleased with aspects of play from his patched-up side.

He said: "I was impressed with the type of rugby we played and the attacking intent and intelligence, it was just the final pass that let us down.

"We had the opportunities to run in a number of tries but just dropped the ball which was disappointing because we had worked so hard to get back into the game.

"The players gave everything and it could so easily have been a different result, but they also appreciate that it was a missed opportunity."

Newport have been boosted by the return of back-rowers Paul Williams, Andrew Coombs and Richard Dale to the squad while Matthew Veater and Richard Field have also recovered from knocks received at Aberavon.

Newport squad: M Hook, C Young, M Poole, W Kershaw-Naylor, N Wakley, S Williams, D Griffiths, J Dixon, M Thomas, S Parry, I Evans, D Evans, D Pattison, A Brown, M Leaman, M Workman, M Veater, R Field, A Coombs, R Dale, P Williams, T Organ.