Both teams suffered Round 1 defeats - Edinburgh Rugby going down 23-0 at Perpignan and the Dragons 10-6 at Rodney Parade to Newcastle Falcons - and further defeats would put serious dents in quarter-final qualifying hopes.
"We're going to have to spend some time this week looking at out set-pieces," said star back Chris Paterson.
"Clearly these have to be right for us to give the backs something to build on. We also need to look at our ball-handling in open play.
"Although the conditions were very wet in Perpignan we still made far too many handling errors. We're improving with every game but we made too many basic errors on this occasion and you can't afford to do that at this level of competition.
"Although we are pleased to have home advantage against Newport Gwent Dragons they have got great form and have already won at least once in Scotland this season in the Celtic league.
"They are a great side and our matches tend to have high scores so it should be a good game.
"But I don't think it'll be any easier for us to play against a team that we know so well. Obviously they also know our game very well and I think that in the Heineken Cup everyone raises their game to the point that it's often like playing against a different team.
"Obviously we were disappointed with the score in Perpignan and we have lots of things to work on before the game against the Dragons but I was pleased with the way our defence worked and it's certainly something we want to build on.
"To a large extent we were able to stop Perpignan from playing their game and the half-time score reflected how effective our defence was. Unfortunately our attack never really got started and, with handling errors, we gave a lot of ball away."
