DEFENCE coach Hendre Marnitz insists the Dragons are not dwelling on their past travel sickness as they prepare to return to the scene of an implosion on the road.

The Rodney Parade region are on a nightmare streak of 24 away league losses that stretches back to Treviso in March, 2015.

The most frustrating of those defeats came in Edinburgh in April when the Dragons contrived to lose a 20-3 lead in the last 10 minutes at Myreside.

That condemned them to a whitewash away from home in all competitions last season but Marnitz insists there are no demons for Friday's return (kick-off 7.35pm).

With the Dragons starting a new era under Welsh Rugby Union control and with a new boss at the helm in Bernard Jackman, the defence coach says they are starting afresh.

"If you go away from home your mentality needs to change, you need to be way more aggressive and way more accurate," said the South African, who joined the Dragons in August.

"I think one tends to overthink away from home – it's a field and if you ask the All Blacks they don't mind where they play, they front up and go. When we go away we have to pitch up and stick in the fight.

"You can't totally ignore the past. Some of the boys took a couple of poundings last year and you can't totally ignore it, but we are in the now and in the process of building something new.

"You can never discard last year but can't dwell too long on it."

The Dragons start their season with a 39-16 home loss to PRO14 title favourites Leinster while Edinburgh, also under a new head coach in Richard Cockerill, enjoyed a super 20-10 win at Cardiff Blues.

"We took loads of positives out of Leinster, the score inflated a bit but the performance as a whole was gutsy. Unfortunately we need more than that," said Marnitz.

"We stayed in the fight but we know that isn't good enough, we have to make sure we don't have any soft moments where we release pressure and give them opportunities."

The Dragons will make a couple of late calls on their squad for Myreside with flanker Ollie Griffiths and scrum-half Sarel Pretorius on the comeback trail from hip and calf injuries respectively.

They are also waiting for news of scans to determine the full extent of the injuries to flanker Nic Cudd and scrum-half Tavis Knoyle (both knee) with head coach Jackman revealing on Saturday that they fear the former will miss the majority of the season.

If Pretorius doesn't get the green light then 19-year-old Owain Leonard, who was an unused replacement at Myreside last season and is yet to make his Dragons debut, would be Charlie Davies' back-up this weekend.

"Owain has been working very hard in training and in life if the opportunity comes then you need to be ready," said Marnitz.

The Dragons name their team at midday on Thursday.