The Dragons are apparently going back to their ‘Roman roots’ with their new-look kit design.

The WRU owned region now have a new home and away kit to go with their new pitch and new coaching team. All that now needs to follow are some new results!

New main sponsors Monmouthshire Building Society take pride of place on the front of the jerseys, while the new Guinness PRO14 logo is also included for the first time.

Welsh internationals Hallam Amos, Gavin Henson and Cory Hill joined flying wing Ashton Hewitt in modelling the home and away strips.

Both jerseys feature an ascending chevron, as a symbol for protection. These interlock giving the impression of dragonhide or roman scale armour, giving a nod to the region’s Roman history.

The new home jersey has retained the familiar Dragons colour scheme of black and red, with amber trim. The away jersey introduces a new amber and red colour scheme, which serves as a unique contrast from the home kit.

Last weekend saw the Dragons lose 50-24 at the home of the English champions, Exeter Chiefs.

That made it three defeats in a row, with Glasgow Warriors to  come on Friday afternoon, ahead of Round 1 of the Guinness PRO14 with a home game against Leinster.

One thing is certain, new Dragons coach Bernard Jackman isn’t having an easy time of it in the first few months of his tenure. But after the long-distance start he had in Montpellier and Northampton Saints last weekend, he at least was able to pick one team for the third pre-season outing at Sandy Park.

It may have ended up in a 50-24 defeat, with another seven tries conceded, but there was plenty for Jackman and his new coaching team to take out of the contest, not least four cracking tries.

“It was a positive experience, especially if you take away the last 15 minutes. We saw enough in that game in terms of what we have been working in defence and attack to feel encouraged,” said Jackman.

“Last week, with two games in the space of 24 hours, we had to bring in some club players, but this week we were able to pick one team. Unfortunately we had a bout of gastroenteritis in the club during the week and with 14 players suffering we had to cancel training on Thursday.

“We had a lot of players who were still weak from the sickness and that meant we ran out of steam a little bit in the end. But we saw some shape in our attack and some good defensive sets and we finished the game with a load of transition players on the field.

“It was great experience for them to play against the English champions away from home. It takes time to build a system. I want the Dragons to play attacking rugby and you have to get the balance right between keeping the ball in hand and attacking kicks. We did some of it right today.

“The difference between a championship-winning team and a side in the bottom half of the table is not backing up error after error. We had to work much harder for our scores than they did and that’s something we will be looking to fix pretty quickly.

“We don’t want to go into Round 1 not having tested ourselves. Glasgow are going to be tough on Friday and they wanted a game as well.”