Alex Crockett says Bath will have no excuses if they fail to keep their Heineken Cup glory bid on course at Newport tomorrow.

The Bath club captain was hugely frustrated when his side's Guinness Premiership clash with Wasps was postponed little more than an hour before kick-off last weekend.

But the centre acknowledges that Bath's players are now in peak physical condition heading into tomorrow lunchtime's key Pool Five clash at Rodney Parade.

The Dragons provided stubborn resistance when they visited the Recreation Ground in October, with Bath claiming a less than convincing 13-9 victory.

But victory is necessary tomorrow if Steve Meehan's side are to set up a winner-takes-all pool finale against French champions Toulouse next weekend.

"The one positive to come out of last weekend's game being called off is that we have had an extra week to recover," said Crockett.

"It's a quite busy schedule nowadays with hard games every week, so from that point of view it was good to give the bodies a rest. But we wanted to play and we wanted to put the Leicester game to bed.

"So that was a shame, but we have certainly got no excuses this weekend now to go full steam ahead into the first of these two Heineken Cup games."

Talk of Toulouse has been banned this week as Bath first look to secure the victory that will ensure they go into next weekend's final pool game in with a chance of reaching the last eight.

Defeat against the Dragons, coupled with a Toulouse victory against Glasgow today, would put the French side out of Bath's reach. So Crockett knows he and his players cannot afford to look beyond 1pm tomorrow.

"It's a bit of a cliché to say you will take each game as it comes, but that couldn't be more true this week," he said.

"The one thing every player and club wants when you are in a competition like the Heineken Cup is that it is in your own hands – and it's still in our hands. We've got to make sure we concentrate and perform this weekend.

"We struggled to beat the Dragons at our place – they tackled everything and I think there's a general feeling that we maybe took them for granted.

"Maybe we thought that because we were at home we just needed to turn up and win. We know now, from playing them at home, just how tough they are and we are expecting a physical game this weekend.

"We are definitely not going to take them for granted again, because we really struggled to finish them off when they came here."

The Dragons will be without their Kiwi captain and hooker Tom Willis, who has been one of the successes of their season, but they possess a wealth of talent if not the big names of rival regions Ospreys and Cardiff Blues.

Former University of Bath student Luke Charteris will captain the Dragons, whose side also includes Colin Charvis.

Bath, with the exception of injured second-row pair Danny Grewcock and Peter Short, are at full strength for their trip across the Severn, with Butch James and Michael Claassens named together at half-back and Lee Mears, Matt Stevens and Michael Lipman in the pack.

Newport Gwent Dragons: J Tovey; G Wyatt, R Gomer-Davies, A Smith, R Fussell; J Arlidge, W Evans; A Black, S Jones, R Thomas, A Jones, L Charteris (capt), H MacDonald, C Charvis, G Webb. Reps: T Willis, G Robinson, L Evans, J Ringer, R Lewis, G Maule, P Dollman.

Bath: N Abendanon; J Maddock, A Crockett, E Fuimaono, M Banahan; B James, M Claassens; D Flatman, L Mears, M Stevens, J Harrison, S Hooper, A Beattie, M Lipman (capt), D Browne. Reps: Dixon, D Bell, J Fa'amatuainu, J Scaysbrook, S Bemand, S Hape, J Cuthbert.

Bath's home Premiership clash with Wasps has been rearranged for Wednesday, April 1 (8pm) and not Bath's preferred date of Saturday, January 31.

This is unless both clubs are not involved in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals on April 11-12, in which case the match will be moved to then.