KINGSLEY Jones doesn't plan to spend too long passing on Russian intelligence to his Newport Gwent Dragons players ahead of Saturday's European Rugby Challenge Cup clash with Enisei.

The Dragons are sitting pretty on top of Pool Three thanks to their excellent bonus-point victory against Brive at Rodney Parade last Friday while Enisei stunned Worcester 19-12 in Moscow.

The Warriors, who rested a raft of first-teamers because their primary concern is staying in the Aviva Premiership, followed Brive and Newcastle in coming a cropper on their travels to Russia.

If the Dragons can avoid becoming victim number four in Krasnodar (kick-off 1pm) then they will be in great shape to qualify for the knockout stages for the third successive season, but their boss knows all about the potential banana skin that awaits them.

Head coach Kingsley Jones spent three years coaching the Russian national team but won't flood his new team with information about mysterious opponents this week.

"I know them inside out and the challenge is a mental one because the journey will be tough and the environment will be tough," said Jones.

"It will be difficult for Enisei to beat us if we stick to our processes and are clinical, but they will do everything they can to make sure that doesn't happen and they can be tricky.

"They defend in a unique way and are really unpredictable, that's what catches sides out. It's the same with the national team, we scored three tries against Australia (in the 2011 World Cup) and nobody really knew what was going on.

"It's hard to code them in analysis for our players in terms of their structures but they have some big guys, particularly their back three and centres. They are big, strong, fast guys that we will have to deal with.

"I've given it quite a bit of thought and have wondered how much we will look at them – if there's ever a game to focus on ourselves and what we do then it might be this week.

"We will make sure we are ready and stick to what we need to do, because it doesn't have to be fancy and we don't have to score seven tries. We need to be professional and come away with the win."

The Dragons travel to Russia on a latenight flight on Thursday, heading to Krasnodar via Moscow before a team run at the Trud Stadium on Friday.

The arduous and costly trip has been made more bearable by their 37-16 success against Brive in Newport, although Jones knows there is plenty of room for improvement after seeing an early 13-0 lead turned into a 16-13 deficit on the hour.

He said: "The middle 40 minutes was probably the worst that we have played this season. Our lineout struggled, we got turned over at the contact area and our discipline was poor as well, which is what you don't want against a French team.

"The biggest positive was that when we lost the lead we kept going and kept believing. The bench came on, we got the momentum then kept it going.

"Although we lost our way a bit for periods, we finished really well and that's full credit to the boys and those that came on."