Head Coach Dai Flanagan insists Dragons will set the club’s foundations, habits, and standards during the early part of pre-season.
The Men of Gwent kicked off preparations for the new BKT United Rugby Championship and EPCR Challenge Cup season this week as they squad met up at the University of South Wales Sport Campus in Treforest.
New signings Lloyd Evans, Steve Cummins, Oli Burrows, and Shane Lewis-Hughes have all checked in – with fellow recruits Solomone Funaki and Harry Wilson arriving next week.
Defence Coach Filo Tiatia has also started working with the new-look squad.
And Flanagan has been pleased by the energy and drive shown in the first week of pre-season.
“It's been a good week. The boys have come in fit and ready to go,” he said.
“The objective is to see what work they’ve done in the off season, but also how we build our relationships, connection and we get people settled to perform as quickly as possible.
“We are all rugby people, so it's quite a smooth transition.
“It's nice having different voices, with a lot of experience from where they've come from and giving them that platform to speak is critical for us.
“They've been superb with the energy and the effort; they've added to us massively.
“First impressions are huge,” he added. “You can see a lot of people are coming prepared, they have put the work in during the off season and are ready to go,
“A lot of our foundations, our habits and our standards will be set this week and that will lead us forward.”
Flanagan has also thanked the University of South Wales for housing the team as they build up preparations.
“It’s about using the number of facilities they have that we can dive into,” he added.
“Just look at the rehab centre they've got here. It's also nice having a grass pitch as well to train on through the summer. It's very similar to Rodney Parade.
“We'll be back home at Ystrad Mynach at some point soon, but this is an opportunity to use something we haven't used before and enhance our performance by using this facility.”
First impressions are huge... You can see a lot of people are coming prepared, they have put the work in during the off season and are ready to go...
