Cardiff Rugby Under-18s have made five changes for Sunday’s Regional Age-Grade Championship derby against the Dragons.

The Blue & Blacks go into the clash determined to bounce back following a 42-40 defeat to the Ospreys in a helter-skelter encounter last weekend.

Three of the changes come in the pack with Tom Howe, Lucca Alexander-White and Alfie Prygodzicz all returning with the latter captaining the team.

There’s a slight reshuffle in the three-quarters with Ioan Penry and Fin Hart returning from their exposure with Cardiff RFC.

Head coach Josh Turnbull was pleased with elements of the performance against Ospreys but has challenged his side to take it to another level in Sunday’s crucial encounter.

He said: “We were obviously disappointed with the result against the Ospreys last Sunday but what was pleasing was the character and fight shown when we were 19-7 down and to come back to 19-19 and then to be 42-26 down and put ourselves in contention to win it at the end.

“As a group we’ve taken some good learnings from the Ospreys game, the biggest being if something is working we don’t need to deviate away from it.

“We showed some good patience in parts of our game we now need to put a whole 80 minute performance together and there’s no better opportunity than against our nearest rivals the Dragons on Sunday in the Arms Park.

“After another joint session with Cardiff RFC on Tuesday night, it gave the players another taste of what the next level looks and feels like, and hopefully it wont be long before we see a few more of these under 18 players in and around the RFC squad on a regular basis, after seeing Ioan Penry, Fin hart and Lloyd Lucas gain exposure in the SRC Cup over the last couple of weeks.

“All our squad players have now had an opportunity through selection in these round robin fixtures, and competition for places in the squad high, which is ultimately what you want.

“It helps drive the players to push themselves that bit more, giving us as coaches those selection headaches.”