JASON Tovey admits Newport Gwent Dragons need to cure their travel sickness if they want to mix it with the Guinness Pro12 big boys.

The Rodney Parade region face three league away games on the spin with Sunday's trip to the Scarlets followed by encounters at Edinburgh and Ulster.

The Dragons are traditionally poor travellers and have won just once in Llanelli, a 30-23 success at Stradey Park in 2007.

That was before Tovey's time and the 25-year-old's record away from Rodney Parade doesn't make pretty reading; he has played 58 games on the road and been on the winning side just 10 times.

The Dragons have ambitions of being Wales' leading region and want to enjoy top-half finishes rather than scrambling around in the bottom four as they have in eight of the past nine seasons.

But Tovey admits such targets require more points from their travels.

"We've got to start winning four away games in a league season," said the fly-half. "We should be targeting the Italian teams and looking to pinch another couple.

"If we can do that then we would really push on as a region and start to become a better side. As soon as we get a couple of away wins the confidence would grow, we would know that we can do it.

"There are a couple of important games coming up against the Scarlets and Edinburgh and we need to win at least one of them to get a bit of momentum into the season.

"We've never won at Parc y Scarlets but we go there with confidence after last week's win against Treviso."

Tovey made his return from a calf problem against the Italians but was on the receiving end of some harsh cat calls when kicking to the corner in the second half.

The Dragons had a bit of a wobble after they had crossed for their bonus point try but the fly-half kept Treviso at arm's length with some touch-finders.

"Everyone likes to see tries but the worst thing to do would have been to open the game up and let Treviso back in," he said.

"I tried to calm the game down a bit and we still created chances. Tries will come when we've got field position, as Glasgow showed against us."

And Tovey's left peg will be key as the Dragons attempt to pin back the Scarlets, who have scored 15 tries in four games.

"They are a dangerous side with some electric runner, Liam Williams is on fire and Gareth Davies is in great form so our defence will have to be better than it's been so far," he said.