THERE'S a good vibe in the Dragons camp at the moment and we want to keep it that way as we head into a busy period of the season.

It's always nice to have the opportunity to be positive and that's definitely the case after back-to-back wins in the Guinness Pro12 for the first time since April 2015 and four Rodney Parade wins on the bounce.

The mood is good in the squad and there is a determination to keep things going with Saturday's trip to Leinster followed by the Worcester double-header in the European Rugby Challenge Cup and derbies against Cardiff Blues and the Ospreys.

We've got momentum and have to keep that with a team certainly capable of winning in the RDS. We've got a strong squad going over to Ireland with everyone keen to make an impression given that Kingsley Jones and his coaches seem to have plenty of selection headaches at the start of every week.

I'm pleased to be starting out in Leinster after suffering a hand injury in last week's win against Edinburgh – it looked like a tennis ball had become stuck under the skin – but it happened just after Ollie Griffiths had gone off so I needed to take some dig-in pills.

It was a tough encounter and there were quite a few bumps and bruises picked up but they do seem to recover better off the back of a win.

Thankfully the injury settled down for me with the quick turnaround for Dublin and I can play to try and keep my place, because everyone has to be on their toes.

Competition has always been strong in the back row at the Dragons and on that front there was great news with Ed Jackson signing a new deal to stay at Rodney Parade.

Ed's been one of our in-form players this season and makes at least one clean line break every game. He's done a fantastic job in filling massive boots of Toby Faletau, so it's great he is staying.

With him, me, James Thomas, Nic Cudd, Ollie Griffiths and Harri Keddie there have been plenty of players putting their hands up recently and that was definitely the case with Ollie against Edinburgh.

He put in an outstanding performance with our stats saying he made four turnovers – with him and Cuddy I'd say we've got two of the most deadly 7s in the league.

Ollie was outstanding against Edinburgh and so were number of our other young players with Ashton Hewitt having another stormer on the wing.

He suffered a hand injury in the win so misses out this weekend but it's great to have him back fit and hopefully he will come back fresh in the big upcoming games.

The cold weather has hit us hard at our Ystrad Mynach training base this week, so that told us winter was on its way but we have welcomed back Cory Hill after he had a brilliant autumn campaign.

He'll feature on the bench for us in Dublin and will be bouncing after the impact he had with Wales in their November Tests.

Cory did himself proud by playing against Australia, Japan and South Africa and taking his opportunity. He has made himself known and hopefully he will put in some big performances for us to make sure he is called up for the Six Nations.

Cory can bring some of the experiences of that Wales environment back to us, help push us forward and also inspire the rest of the squad.

While he had a great November it was sad to see my old mate Dan Lydiate suffer such an innocuous yet serious injury in the final Test against the Springboks. He's not had the best of luck with injury recently but I wish him all the best with making a swift recovery.

For those who are not venturing to Dublin in the arctic conditions, I believe the game is on S4C and all are welcome at The Lamb for a casual drink or two!