NEWPORT Gwent Dragons head coach Darren Edwards is convinced that centre Adam Hughes can thrive in a land of giants.

Wales’ Grand Slam set of backs featured four players – Alex Cuthbert, Jamie Roberts, George North and Jon Davies – that all stand above 6ft 1in and weigh in over 16 stone.

Imposing lumps, they all run hard and quick.

Hughes does not possess their power when running yet but the Dragons intend to help in the 22-year-old’s physical growth to prompt his progression to the next stage.

"Adam’s leg power is phenomenal but what we haven’t been able to do is develop his upper body," said Edwards.

"The depth of our squad has meant that he has had to play a lot of rugby and we haven’t been able to take him out of mainstream training for intense conditioning. We will do that but I would say that Adam already weighs in at around 101kg (around 16st) and certainly punches his weight."

Hughes didn’t score as many tries in 2011/12 as his breakthrough season – two as opposed to ten – but his progress has continued. He played most of his rugby in his preferred outside centre position and his efforts put him on Wales’ radar.

Whether he has done enough to make his international bow this summer will be revealed when caretaker coach Rob Howley names his squads for the Barbarians and Australia on Monday.

But Edwards has no doubts that his young back, who has added goalkicking to his repertoire and demonstrated his versatility by finishing the season as a makeshift fly-half, has the talent to make the step up.

"Adam has got all the attributes," he said. "Somebody that has got his running ability in the outside channel plus his skill set is one for the future.

"We saw him start on the wing and everyone thought that he could just run, and run hard.

"That ability and pace made it clear that he could be a quality 13 but what we have seen since he moved into the centre is his distribution.

"He is very coachable and a very exciting talent."