NEWPORT Gwent Dragons coach Shaun Connor has hailed the strides made by Harri Keddie after a pair of rumbustious performances from the burgeoning back rower in the Anglo-Welsh Cup.

The 20-year-old from Llanvanches has made six appearances so far this season and played the full 160 minutes in the last fortnight, playing number eight in the 42-3 loss at Leicester and blindside flanker in the 36-22 win against the Scarlets.

Connor believes former Under-20s star Keddie, who has trained with the full Wales squad this autumn along with fellow Dragons young gun and tighthead Leon Brown, is developing nicely since joining the big boys.

“Harri was probably a little bit quiet to start against the Scarlets but in the second half some of his carrying and collisions were outstanding,” said the backs coach.

“Against Leicester he was outstanding as well, him and (blindside) James Thomas were two of the players to bring collisions and Harrison carried that on against the Scarlets.

“He has always been in the selection mix but with all youngsters it’s a matter of timing and what you can’t do is throw too many of them in at the same time.

“Harri has been patient and played a lot of Premiership rugby with Ebbw Vale last year, winning the title as well, and now he has played a few times for us and I only see his game time increasing.”

Keddie will be battling for a place in the highly-competitive back row for the Guinness Pro12 clash with Edinburgh on Sunday with Ed Jackson having a super season at number eight, captain Lewis Evans set to return from a calf injury and Thomas, Nic Cudd and Ollie Griffiths all scrapping it out.

The Dragons go into that fixture looking for a fourth home win on the bounce after adding the Scarlets to successes against Brive and champions Connacht.

“We go into Edinburgh with a lot of confidence after winning three on the bounce at home. The crowd were fantastic again, so we are looking to give them something to cheer,” said Connor.

“Edinburgh are in and around us in the table so it’s a fixture that we’ve got to target if we’ve got aspirations to climb the table.”