PAUL Turner is hoping to be able to shuffle his pack this season to avoid a similar situation to last season when his Newport Gwent Dragons side staggered to the finish line.

The Dragons failed to qualify for the Heineken Cup last season when they collapsed against Parma and Turner is planning to make the most of his resources this campaign.

The preparations go up a notch this weekend when they tackle the Cornish Pirates and one man who will be travelling west is new signing Colin Charvis, though he won't feature on the pitch.

Instead the back rower is likely to make his Dragons debut in the friendly with Bath a week later, probably a 20-minute cameo, as Turner sets about preparing his charges for their opening Magner League clash with Glasgow.

"Colin's kept himself in good shape but is certainly not match fit, but neither are a number of the squad yet and we have to live with that," said Turner.

"It's not ideal and perhaps if we'd had Colin from when we first spoke to him he'd be in better shape.

"He will give balance to the back row and that bit of edge that we may be without with Jason Forster moving on - you need characters like that. We will be looking for 15 games from him, just as we will from the likes of Gareth Cooper, Ceri Sweeney, Ian Gough and Paul Emerick.

"We need to get the maximum out of our players and that means being able to rest them when they need resting - last season we had to carry a tighthead prop (Rhys Thomas) for most of the season because of lack of numbers.

"At stages we were really up against it, especially around Christmas when we had three games in nine days, and we didn't come out of those periods very well.

"You need enough strength in depth to rest players, and come January if I have seen problems hopefully the structure is in place to be able to react to them and get people in."

After a convincing win against an inexperience Gwent Select side the Dragons will face a sterner proposition in the shape of the Cornish Pirates at Penzance on Saturday.

Turner will be hoping his charges can follow in the bootsteps of Ebbw Vale, who defeated the English Division One outfit on their own patch last Saturday.

"The weekend is good for squad morale, team bonding and all of those type of buzz words, but it's all about growing as a team and being in the best shape for Glasgow.

"We have got to hit the ground running and get a few victories under our belts and this is important towards achieving that.

"Our target is to qualify for Europe and the only way to do that is to come in the top three Welsh sides, and if we don't we need to go to Italy in good shape and win.

"It's about keeping our powder dry throughout the season. We are in the winning business and it is important that we make a good start."