The East Wales rivals clash at Rodney Parade on Saturday with a last-four tie against London Irish or Edinburgh on the line. Both sides have claimed an away day triumph over each other this season, and Coombs is determined to put that right in-front of their support in Newport.
He said: “They did a job on us at Rodney Parade on New Year’s Day and the boys are still hurting from that. We are excited and need to turn up this time because we were poor against them in so many aspects of our game.
“They held onto the ball for long periods of time and when we turned the ball over we were lazy on it. The forwards were just looking for the backs to kick instead of working hard. As long as we work hard as a pack off our 9 and 10 then I am sure things will go well for us.”
The Dragons warmed up for the first Welsh European derby in 15 years by overcoming a stubborn Treviso side in Italy. And Director of Rugby Lyn Jones admitted he has some selection headaches after the impressive performance.
“It was just the performance that we were looking for moving onto the Blues game. We looked organised and tidy while we showed plenty of character. That was a good Treviso side who are strong at home but we pulled out all the stops, showing fight and determination when so often we have folded.
“We’ve now got a lot of question marks over the side for the quarter-final and there is going to be an edge in training, which is what players want. We’ve put a lot of work in on the training field and it’s coming through now. We’ve got six to eight games left this season and will need to keep building.”
