SHAUN Connor has returned to the Newport Gwent Dragons management team as academy skills coach.

The 38-year-old former fly-half from Blaina has joined as replacement for Byron Hayward, who left for the Scarlets in the summer, and will also help out with the seniors' backs.

Connor played 29 times for the Dragons and then joined the management team as skills coach after hanging up his boots in 2010.

He left for a job with the Welsh Rugby Union based at the Ospreys two years later but has returned to take up a role at the region's new Ystrad Mynach training base.

Connor will work under Dragons academy boss James Chapron but will also lend a hand to director of rugby Lyn Jones, who has been operating without a specialist backs coach since Darren Edwards' departure in February.

Jones is relishing the chance to join forces again with his former Neath and Ospreys number 10.

"I am delighted that Shaun has come on board as academy skills coach and I am keen to introduce him into some senior coaching as well when possible," he said.

"He was very popular with the players in his first period with the region and then went away to work for the Union at the Ospreys.

"It's great to have him back, he's a good man and the right type of character to have here.

"Growing our own players is very important. With the new Rugby Services Agreement the shape of regional rugby is going to change dramatically and we need to get ready and restructure for the future."

The region's fresh agreement with the Welsh Rugby Union saw the responsibility for looking after the academies transfer from the governing body to the Dragons, Ospreys, Scarlets and Cardiff Blues.

Chapron is now employed by the Dragons rather than the WRU along with Connor, conditioning coach Rhodri Williams, analyst Owen Griffiths and physio Kat Lenon.