NEW captain Kevin Morgan is looking for his colleagues at the coal face to help him out when he adopts the role of leading Newport Gwent Dragons.

The Wales full back will take over from Michael Owen as club skipper when he completes his recovery from a serious foot operation that ruined the second half of his 2005-6 campaign.

The 29-year-old, who was won 36 caps for Wales, is chomping at the bit to adopt the role and while he freely admits that at times it will be tough to lead the side from full back, he is sure he has the calibre of teammates to lend a helping hand.

"There are a lot of good quality, experienced players in the side with the likes of Colin Charvis, Michael Owen and Ian Gough up front," he said. "Without a doubt I will be leaning on them to help me throughout the season.

"I'm not a shouter and I'm not a screamer, that's not my style, I'll just hope to lead from the front and from example.

"Obviously it's a bit more difficult from full back because you're not in the hub of things, but I will have quality, proven players all around me in the likes Gareth Cooper, Charvis, Ceri Sweeney, Owen in the heart of the side and I'd expect them to lead by example as well.

"I'm not thinking of Wales, my main priority is to play again for the region and to get back to fitness - anything else is a bonus. I'm just itching to get back playing and then hopefully I can lead by example on the captaincy front."

It will be a strange start to the captaincy campaign for Morgan, who can also play on either wing, as he will be on the sidelines for the first month of the season.

But nonetheless he will be throwing himself into the team action, starting with the trip to Penzance this weekend to tackle Cornish Pirates in a pre-season friendly.

He said: "Everybody is looking forward to it, it's a good chance for the team to get together and bond. It's a bit frustrating for me (being injured), but I will still be around the team geeing them on as I would normally so it's an important weekend for me as well as the boys who are playing.

"We need to start the season well and the pre-season is crucial to that in terms of laying down structures and rectifying mistakes.

"From the backs point of view it is looking pretty exciting with the likes of the Brew brothers, Gareth Wyatt and a fully-fit Sweeney and it is an important time for tuning the moves and getting together as a unit.

"A lot of the new boys performed really well against the Gwent select side and have brought something new to the squad and I'm sure we are going to improve on last year.

"And the signing of Colin has given us a big boost, a player of his calibre is a great acquisition and we are all looking forward to the new season."