Their game at Stradey Park against the Scarlets was postponed due to fog while Glasgow Warriors beat Scottish rivals Edinburgh Gunners to overtake the Dragons, who are now just one place off the foot of the table.
However, the Dragons have been boosted by Kevin Morgan, Rhys Thomas, Jamie Ringer and Adam Black renewing their contracts with the region for another two years. Young is waiting for a no-holds-barred clash in the East Wales derby against well rested opponents.
Young said: “It’s always a fierce encounter at Rodney Parade and we know exactly what we have to do down there. They are very good in the set pieces and will be a big test for us, especially so soon after the Ospreys game.”
Young has selected a side that shows three changes from the match against the Ospreys on Saturday. Nicky Robinson starts at outside half with Nick Macleod moving to fullback and Ben Blair moving to the wing. Tom James had not recovered from his hip injury sustained against Munster last weekend.
In the forwards, Gethin Jenkins and Gary Powell come in and will start in the front row. Taufa’ao Filise moves to the bench and is joined by Rhys Shellard, Ed Fairhurst, Dai Flanagan and Dafydd Hewitt as Marc Stcherbina has still not recovered from his calf injury.
Mark Lewis also suffered grade two medial ligament damage to his left knee in the match against Munster which is expected to keep him out of action for between four to six weeks.
Meanwhile, the Dragons will turn orange for their Christmas derby game in support of MS Cymru and have announced a virtually unchanged team from the one that was due to take on the Scarlets last Friday.
With the match against the Scarlets postponed due to heavy fog, Paul Turner’s Dragons take on the Blues, who are buoyed by their victory over the Ospreys on the weekend.
Gareth Wyatt comes in for Aled Brew but moves to No.14 with brother Nathan replacing Aled at No.11. The other changes are among the replacements, which sees Nic Fitisemanu replace Joe Bearman and Mike Hercus also slots in on the bench.
