NEWPORT Gwent Dragons boss Lyn Jones wants his players to show their mental strength by overcoming a rapid turnaround to upset Connacht's Guinness Pro12 play-off push this evening.

The Dragons have had just six days to get over their last-gasp 17-15 loss at table-topping Ulster while tonight's visitors head to Newport after a weekend of rest.

The turnaround will be a test of Jones' stretched squad but their form on home soil this season has been impressive with eight wins from 10 games at Rodney Parade.

"Short turnarounds are difficult to deal with mentally rather than physically," said director of rugby Jones, who has been delighted with their performances since December.

"That's our challenge this week – after being up high against Leinster (a 23-13 win) and Ulster can we deliver another high-level performance against another top Irish club? If we can then we know that we are on the right road."

If the Dragons are to maintain their fine home form then they can ill afford a repeat of their indiscipline from Ulster.

They suffered two yellow cards and though they held firm while lock Matthew Screech and flanker Ben White were in the sin bin, the pressure eventually told.

"I thought the effort was unbelievable and shows the huge amount of character that exists in this Dragons team. That's something you can't buy," said Jones.

"We have been working to get the right type of characters in the room and that 10 minutes was outstanding in not allowing them to get over our line but it did cost us. Next step is to be a little bit wiser in not giving crazy penalties away."

Connacht head to Newport with a fine record against the Dragons and with the carrot of going to the top of the table if they avoid defeat.

They took the spoils 29-23 when the sides met in Galway on the opening day of the season and have since gone on to win seven more games to be mixing it with the more established front-runners.

"They play for each other and have a nice little gameplan. They have good players like Bundee Aki and Denis Buckley that do a lot of work for them and some of their play is as good as you get in the league," said Jones.

"It's been quite a while since we have beaten Connacht but we look forward with confidence to getting a victory against them."