AFTER a long, hard pre-season we can't wait to get going and hopefully over the next eight months I will be writing about plenty of Newport Gwent Dragons victories.

I am delighted to have been asked to write a column in the Argus and my aim is to give you a glimpse behind the scenes in what I am sure will be a successful season.

The Guinness Pro12 kicks off this evening but we have to wait another day before getting under way against Connacht in Galway when we hope to reap the rewards of plenty of graft.

The break was a short one for us this summer because the coaches had so many new players to integrate and preparations have gone well.

We've had a good conditioning block at our new training base in Ystrad Mynach and everyone is feeling sharp, which I think showed in the friendlies.

Pre-season games count for nothing but they are the best form of training and last week's win against Northampton gives us loads of confidence for Connacht.

We knew they would come at us with a good team but it was still a bit of a surprise to see their teamsheet with George North, Courtney Lawes, Dylan Hartley and all their stars in it.

To beat a fully-loaded Northampton side 27-25 was a big statement of intent and plenty of players put their hands up for selection in the Pro12 opener.

Last season I played in all of our league games and made 26 appearances, which was more than my previous high of 25 in 2010/11.

I spoke to our director of rugby Lyn Jones about that and he said that he felt I was overplayed, which led to my performances dropping off a bit towards the end, but that won't happen this season.

There is going to be more rotation because there is real strength and depth in the squad and even Lee Byrne, our captain who has led us fantastically in pre-season, has a young superstar in the making breathing down his neck in Hallam Amos.

There is no resting on your laurels; there is competition for places everywhere.

The back row has always been strong at the Dragons but this year it is right up there with when I first came through with Dan Lydiate and we had the likes of Colin Charvis, Joe Bearman, Michael Owen, Richard Parks, Jamie Ringer in the squad.

Lyn and Kingsley have plenty of options with me, Nic Cudd, Toby Faletau, Andy Powell, Andrew Coombs, Netani Talei and then the youngsters Scott Matthews, James Benjamin and Ollie Griffiths coming through.

It means that there will be plenty of nerves for every team announcement and when you get the starting jersey you have to do your job well because there are so many teammates that want your spot.

Those of us that play tomorrow will be desperate to keep our places for next Friday's derby against the Ospreys at Rodney Parade.

It makes a nice change to be heading to Galway in September, we usually get them in winter and I was almost blinded by hailstones when we went there last December.

They did the double over us last season, and did it well.

They realised that the blueprint for success was to beat us at the set piece and not play expansively, because our defence is a real strength. We are confident those tactics won't work this season.

The scrum has been solidified with props Boris Stankovich, Lloyd Fairbrother and David Young coming in, we've got two big new locks in Rynard Landman and Ian Gough to go along with Cory Hill and Matthew Screech and we have some pretty heavyweight back rowers.

And our head coach Kingsley Jones has been working hard on our defence of the driving lineout, stripping things back and keeping things simple.

It went reasonably well in pre-season and it was really pleasing that Northampton, who have got one of the strongest drives in Europe, didn't get any change out of us.

We will need to put in a strong performance up front when the real stuff gets under way tomorrow and if we do that then we can get our season off to a winning start.

Our record in Connacht isn't the best but there are so many fresh faces in our squad that we head there without any demons; everyone is positive and desperate to start the season with a bang.

Hopefully this time next week you'll be reading about how we are targeting back-to-back successes.