LYN Jones has refused to use injuries as an excuse for Newport Gwent Dragons' poor start to the season and insists nobody has hit the panic button at Rodney Parade.

The region have lost five of six games in the Guinness Pro12 and failed to convince when beating Treviso.

In mitigation the Dragons have a lengthy list of absentees and are down to the bare bones in midfield and the second row.

Centres Pat Leach, Ross Wardle, Jack Dixon and Tyler Morgan are currently sidelined and locks Ian Gough, Cory Hill, Matthew Screech and Joe Davies are on the treatment table while Rynard Landman has overcome a stiff neck to feature against Stade Francais on Saturday.

Nonetheless, Jones admits that the Dragons still have the quality in their ranks to be performing an awful lot better.

"We would be unwise to say that it's all down to injury," he said. "It does have an influence because if you are to play professional rugby effectively then the people coming on after 50 and 60 minutes need to be equally effective.

"But things we were doing well last year we are not doing well this year, while things we were doing badly last year we are now doing well.

"When you have a large turnover of the squad as we have had then the challenge is always to be a team and we are not there at the moment. We are still trying to get people to commit to a system in attack and defence."

The Dragons have won just three of 17 league games in 2014 but Jones is confident they will soon turn things around.

"When you have been here before you know what to expect and how sensitivity heightens," he said.

"There's no panicking, I've been quite clear about where we are, why we are there and specific about how we can get out of it.

"The challenge is becoming a team and things can turn around quickly once you get the right people in the room who want to play for the jersey, listen to the coaches and do what's best for the team not themselves.

"There's no division. We are all together and know that we need to roll our sleeves up, but there is no panic."

Wales wing Tom Prydie deputised at outside centre in last weekend's 24-10 loss to Edinburgh at Murrayfield and is set to stay there at Stade Jean Bouin while the inexperienced pair of James Thomas and Scott Andrews back up locks Landman and Andrew Coombs. Owen Evans replaces Hugh Gustafson as the alternative loosehead to in-form Boris Stankovich.

The members of the Dragons squad that lined up for Cross Keys against Doncaster in the British and Irish Cup will once again play for the Pandy Park side against Bedford this weekend.

Dragons squad: L Byrne, M Pewtner, T Prydie, A Brew, A Smith, H Amos, J Tovey, A O'Brien, J Evans, R Rees, B Stankovich, O Evans, R Thomas, E Dee, L Fairbrother, D Way, A Coombs, R Landman, J Thomas, S Andrews, L Evans, N Cudd, T Faletau, A Powell.