"Newcastle are a very dangerous side," he told www.gloucesterrugby.co.uk. "They have some outstanding backs, some big forwards and are capable of doing some real damage.
"For our group of players this is a very important period. We have always had one eye on this time of the season and hope we are good enough to cope with the obvious disruption.
"This is a severe test of our squad and a big disruption but we have a lot of confidence that we are doing the right thing and over the last couple of weeks we have introduced players into the side who are now used to winning."
Ryan has not finalised his team line-up for the weekend but will be forced into a number of changes because of international call-ups.
He will discover today how many players he will lose to England's autumn squad but will almost certainly be without Mike Tindall and Phil Vickery.
That will give a chance at prop to either Gary Powell or Terry Sigley at tighthead, while Ryan will also need to find a centre to replace Tindall.
With Mefin Davies starting for Wales against the All Blacks, Ryan's hooking options revolve around Olivier Azam, James Parkes and Rob Elloway.
