THE Dragons will face a Lions side determined to take them to ‘dark places’ at Rodney Parade, believes boss Dai Flanagan.

The Rodney Parade club host South African opposition for the second weekend running in the United Rugby Championship.

After being beaten 33-30 at the death by the Sharks, the Dragons aim to record their second home win of the campaign against the Lions on Sunday (kick-off 2.30pm).

Their visitors beat Ulster 35-22 in their first game of the season and last week humiliated Edinburgh 55-21, getting the job done in the first half to lead 48-0 at half-time.

“The Sharks have very good individuals and are well-coached but they give you a few more ins to the game than the Lions,” said Flanagan.

“They are a very, very physical and tough team, you can see that they are united and their coach Ivan van Rooyen has done a superb job.

“They are a lot more physical than the other South African teams – they want to take you to dark places and see if you can live with it.

“When watching the Edinburgh game there is firstly a bit of fear and ‘wow’ but then you get excited about what we could do to them, how we could find solutions and where are the opportunities.

POWER: Ruan Venter of the Emirates Lions driving forward against the Dragons last seasonPOWER: Ruan Venter of the Emirates Lions driving forward against the Dragons last season (Image: Huw Evans Agency)

“A big one is that we are at Rodney Parade. At altitude it is different because as an away team you want to slow the game down to acclimatise in the first 20 to 30 minutes whereas they want to blow you out of the park.

“We played the Bulls many years ago with the Scarlets and one of their players came to meet Dwayne Peel, who he worked with before, and asked what the plan was an he said ‘to make your lungs bleed’.

“Thankfully we don’t have to deal with altitude and we want to keep developing our style of play so that hopefully people are proud to watch us and can see a bit of themselves in how we play.”

The Dragons have shown their tenacity to beat the Ospreys at the death and when going toe-to-toe with the Sharks, while they also frustrated Leinster for a half in Dublin.

They will need to be at their physical best against this weekend’s opponents, even if it’s Newport rather than Johannesburg.

“The Lions have their DNA and that doesn’t change,” said Flanagan. “They have a big scrum, they maul more than any other team and they keep the ball in longer, then they pack a punch when they have the opportunity to hit you.”