A HANDFUL of senior Dragons will get one last chance to make a case for Guinness PRO14 selection on Saturday.
The region continue their Celtic Cup campaign with a fixture against Ulster Ravens, who are second in the table and chasing down leaders Leinster.
The Irish province will head to Ystrad Mynach (kick-off 3pm) with Ryan aiming to give more minutes to some experienced players.
In previous rounds the likes of hooker Rhys Lawrence, prop Jack Cosgrove, locks Joe Davies and Max Williams, back row forwards Huw Taylor and James Benjamin, fly-halves Arwel Robson and Jacob Botica and centre Connor Edwards have featured.
Who Ryan releases to face Ulster will give a clue as to his thinking for the PRO14 opener against Munster in Limerick a week on Saturday.
However, a strong performance for the Dragons XV, who lost 40-35 to the Scarlets before the senior beat the west Walians in last week's Rodney Parade double-header, could give the director of rugby food for thought when selecting his 23 for Thomond Park.
"The Celtic Cup at its best has a mix of youth and experience," said Ryan. "Full credit to both regions, there were 50 guys each on the field last weekend.
"That was a pretty entertaining afternoon and the Celtic Cup has been a good balance for us, we've been able to play some older guys and really talented youngsters.
"We will try and get that mix right and see who needs to play and a little bit more time to keep improving."
The development tournament has two rounds after this weekend that clash with the PRO14 with the Dragons heading to Leinster on the same afternoon as Ryan's men take on Munster and then they finish against the Ospreys Development on the day that the seniors are at Zebre.
The Dragons XV beat Munster A in round two of the Celtic Cup and have totted up five bonus points from four fixtures.
They crossed for five tries in the loss to the Scarlets last weekend and captain Ben Roach is keen to keep going on the attack.
"It wasn't the result we wanted, we always want to come out and win at Rodney Parade," said the Wales sevens international, who made nine appearances for the Dragons firsts in 2017/18.
"I thought the intent to play a fast and attacking game was definitely there and the intensity was good, we have just come out the wrong side of the result.
"There are things to learn, we will take them away and look to progress against Ulster."
Back row forward Roach, who will return to Wales duty in the World Rugby Sevens Series in December, believes his young teammates will reap the rewards of the Celtic Cup campaign.
"There are boys on the fringes of the first team and some first team coming down, so everyone is getting that exposure. It is a great standard of rugby and we can only progress from the Scarlets game," said the 25-year-old from Cardiff.
"It is tough to take when you lose, they are always going to be one-score games because of the calibre of the teams we are playing.
"We've got things to work on, there were a few balls that went down, but we will learn from that. We've got to keep playing.
"It's the game we want to play, we want to play it fast and we want to play it expansive with ball in hand. It's now about bringing it all together. "
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