BACKS coach Shaun Connor has called on Newport Gwent Dragons to overpower hefty Enisei after hailing the way they outmuscled Treviso to return to winning ways.

The Dragons have no margin for error in their European Challenge Cup clash with the Russians at Rodney Parade on Friday (kick-off 7.30pm) if they are to make the knockout stages for the third season on the spin.

They have to record a bonus-point win to set up a winner-takes-all finale at Brive and will be gunning for revenge against an Enisei team that thumped them 38-18 in Krasnodar in October.

The Dragons head into the game on the back of a comfortable 26-8 victory against Treviso in which they had the edge over a pack featuring seven Italy internationals and Connor knows they need more of the same against the Russians.

"Our lessons from the first game were that they outmuscled us and won collisions," said the former fly-half.

"We feel we are a better team now than when we went there so we are going into the game with the intentions of winning the battles up front and getting the ball to our exciting backs."

"We knew Treviso would be big and physical so the challenge for us was to win collisions. In the first 50 to 55 minutes we did that in attack and defence," he continued.

"We won collisions, particularly playing off nine, and we spent a lot of time working on our defence as well and I thought we stopped the threats that they have."

The forwards produced the goods but they were prompted by Sarel Pretorius, who was named official PRO12 man of the match for a try-scoring performance back in the 9 jersey.

"Sarel was excellent," said Connor. "He hasn't started many games over the last month or so but that's down to the fact that Tavis Knoyle has played very well.

"By Tavis' standards he didn't play as well against the Ospreys, so Sarel had an opportunity and took it.

"The most pleasing thing for us was that he controlled the game. He knew when to kick when to run when to pass, our game off nine was outstanding and that was largely down to him."

Connor was also pleased with the performance of Wales centre Tyler Morgan, who has started and finished the last three games.

The 21-year-old may not have produced the dazzling outside breaks he is capable off but the lack of mistakes in challenging conditions pleased his coach.

"Tyler is young so makes errors but against Treviso he didn't make many," said Connor. "He was outstanding without being spectacular and did everything well. He got over the gain line by carrying hard and made his tackles."