FLANKER James Thomas is finding his voice after establishing himself in the Newport Gwent Dragons pack.

The 24-year-old earned a professional contract last summer after impressing with Bedwas in the Principality Premiership and after initially expecting to have to wait patiently for opportunities has become a regular.

He has made 19 appearances – a tally that only wing Tom Prydie, lock Rynard Landman, hooker Elliot Dee, scrum-half Jonathan Evans and flanker Lewis Evans can better – and has grown in stature.

Thomas, who broke into the side as a makeshift lock before moving back to his preferred position of blindside flanker, has been rewarded with a fresh contract and will continue his progress over the coming months.

With Lewis Evans out for the rest of the season and Taulupe Faletau on Six Nations duty, the back rower from Blackwood will have to step forward.

While not exactly a ranter and raver, Thomas will have to play his part when joining forces with openside Nic Cudd and new boy Nick Crosswell.

"At the start of the season I probably let Lewis do most of the organisational stuff and carried on with my own game," he said.

"But Nick has come in and I know the game plan better than him, so have to tell him stuff. It is a bit more responsibility, I don't especially like telling people what to do but it's good for Nick.

"As a back row we are all quite quiet so we have to step up and say something sometimes. As long as we all know our jobs we don't have to go around telling each other what to do but if we need to change something we can ask each other rather than going around shouting at everybody.

"But I don't know the game as well as say Andrew Coombs or a few other boys, you have to be confident in what everyone is doing before you go around giving your opinion."

Thomas was to the fore last weekend when the Dragons stunned Leinster 16-14 to win for the first time in Dublin.

They were huge underdogs in the Irish capital yet must cope with being slight favourites against Connacht tomorrow afternoon.

"We've had better results away from home and the RDS and Paris against Stade Francais were great games to play in and 10 times better for winning," said Thomas.

"When we play away from home we have a nothing-to-lose mentality whereas perhaps at home we feel the pressure a bit.

"We've had a couple of good performances in patches but not a good solid win and getting back-to-back wins and a bit of consistency is key."

Boris Stankovich will make his first start for three months at Rodney Parade. The 34-year-old loosehead last donned the number 1 jersey against the Ospreys in the LV= Cup in November when he suffered a knee injury.

The former Leicester prop made his return off the bench in the wins against London Welsh and Leinster but returns to the XV for the encounter with a Connacht side that destroyed the Dragons up front last season.

Director of rugby Lyn Jones makes no other changes to the side that stunned Guinness Pro12 champions Leinster on their own patch last weekend but brings loosehead Phil Price back on the bench.

Connacht, stuffed 32-14 at the Scarlets last weekend, are without injured All Black Mils Muliaina and Ireland centre Robbie Henshaw.

Dragons: J Tovey, T Prydie, P Leach, J Dixon, H Amos, D Jones, J Evans, B Stankovich, R Thomas, B Harris, A Coombs, R Landman (captain), J Thomas, N Cudd, N Crosswell. Replacements: R Buckley, P Price, D Way, I Gough, J Benjamin, R Rees, A Smith, M Pewtner.

Connacht: D Leader, D Poolman, D McSharry, C Ronaldson, M Healy, J Carty, J Cooney, D Buckley, T McCartney, N White, Q Roux, A Muldowney, J Muldoon (captain), J Heenan, E Masterson. Replacements: S Delahunt, R Ah You, F Bealham, M Kearney, G Naoupu, I Porter, N Adeolokun, T O'Halloran.

Referee: Lloyd Linton (Scotland)