DRAGONS boss Bernard Jackman is hopeful that former Wales playmaker Gavin Henson will be back from injury to pull the strings against Edinburgh on Friday.

The 36-year-old missed the nightmare 18-15 loss to Benetton at Rodney Parade on Sunday after suffering a hamstring twinge.

Henson has been out of favour since an under-par performance against Cardiff Blues on Boxing Day but the Dragons lacked control against the Italians.

Former South Africa full-back Zane Kirchner has been filling in at fly-half in the last four fixtures but had a torrid time, charged down for Benetton’s first try and missing nine points from the kicking tee.

“Zane was just filling in, he was never signed as a 10 but when we had some injuries he played there,” said Jackman.

“It would have been very hard for Arwel [Robson], after playing no rugby for six weeks, to start and the plan was always to get him off the bench for 15/20 minutes to have him fit to go on Friday or against the Kings.

“It was just one of those days for Zane, things didn’t go well for him. He gives us a lot in terms of enthusiasm but his place kicking wasn’t as good as we would have liked.

“We see him as someone who can fill in at 10 if we have no other options. He has done us a favour but our two frontline 10s are Gav and Arwel, while Dorian Jones and Angus O’Brien are a little bit behind at the moment.”

The Dragons loss to Benetton despite leading 10-0 in the opening exchanges thanks to tries by wing Jared Rosser and hooker Liam Belcher.

A second by Belcher earned a 15-12 lead at the break but a pair of Marty Banks penalties earned the spoils for the Italians.

“That was a game that was in the balance and we needed to be more clinical in the key moments; Treviso deserved to win because they managed the game better,” said Jackman.

“They took their scores while we were a little bit wasteful. It was the same against Glasgow.

“The first step was to stop conceding 30, 35 points; we seem to have fixed that but we want to be winning. When we review the game it will be an opportunity lost.

“To start like we did and let them back into the game, then not capitalise on early possession and territory dominance at the start of the second half, we have only got ourselves to blame.”

Wales centre Tyler Morgan is set for another spell on the sidelines after suffering a small foot fracture when claiming a high ball in training last week.

“He felt a crack and is going to see a specialist,” said Jackman. “It’s hard on him because he came back and trained really hard.

“We were looking forward to having him for the last seven games and we would have loved to see him fit and was very good at the start of the year.”