A RETURN trip to Franklin’s Gardens awaits the Dragons when they open their Anglo-Welsh Cup campaign at Northampton Saints this autumn.

The Rodney Parade region were hammered 71-21 there by the Aviva Premiership big guns in a pre-season friendly last Saturday.

So Dragons head coach Bernard Jackman and his troops obviously won’t be hoping for a repeat of that on Saturday, November 11 (3pm).

The Dragons have been drawn in Pool 2 of the cross-border competition alongside Exeter Chiefs, Harlequins and Sale Sharks.

However, in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, teams don’t play the other sides in their group, instead they face four clubs from one of the other three pools.

As well as the Saints, the Dragons will take on the Scarlets, who they beat in the round-robin stages of last season’s tournament, Saracens and Worcester Warriors.

They host the Scarlets on the newly-laid playing surface at Rodney Parade on the weekend of November 17/18/19, before going to Saracens on either January 26, 27 or 28.

Jackman’s men will then finish their group fixtures against Worcester at home on the weekend of February 2/3/4.

Worcester have the honour of hosting the opening match in this year’s cup on Friday, November 3 when Sale are the visitors to Sixways.

Holders Leicester Tigers will be the first side in front of the live BT Sport cameras as Gloucester make the trip to Welford Road on the second day of the competition.

Leicester beat the Dragons on their way to lifting the trophy last season, while the Welshman also lost to Gloucester and Newcastle as they failed to reach the knockout rounds.

The semi-finals of the 2017-18 event will take place on the weekend of March 10/11/12 with the final on the following weekend.