Dragons captain Tom Willis is confident that the Men of Gwent are ready for the challenge of Musgrave Park tomorrow (7:45pm)
“I think everyone in our squad is excited: we've had a lot of competition throughout the pre-season - a lot of conditioning - and everyone's itching for opportunity. We feel that if we go over there and acquit ourselves well, there's no reason that we can't come home with points. It's a good time to have Munster, with no disrespect to the players that they got there at the moment but missing their internationals will obviously have an impact on them.
“I know that we are missing 5 boys and they are key players for us but the young players that have stepped up in the two pre-season games have proved themselves very capable and I can assure you they're pretty excited about going somewhere like Munster, who are reigning champions, and flying into the big boys.
Although as one of the senior players, Willis is happy to offer guidance to the younger players, he certainly doesn’t see getting them psyched up for the game ahead as a challenge.
“I don't think they'll need too much motivation to be honest because it's a fantastic opportunity and a real test so they'll be nervous but excited. I suppose my job as captain on the field is to insure that we're disciplined and playing off to the instructions that we're given and to complement what we're good at basically. So if we go over there and be disciplined we've got a chance.
“In my experience with the Dragons, going to Munster has always been a real challenge but there's a degree of confidence and optimism in the squad at the moment. It's the start of a new season so you have to feel optimistic right?
“There's a lot of competition amongst our loose-forwards at the moment. Mike Poole has emerged as a player with a bit of excitement about him. Burns is away but we've got myself, Steve Jones and and some promising young hookers so I still think we have some good guys.
And Willis is certainly delighted to see his fellow hooker taking up a spot in the Welsh World Cup side
“I was on the bench last season and I saw the way he played and being a hooker myself I was much admiring his performances and I think he's going to New Zealand on the back of some fantastic results. I think it demonstrates this region’s attitude towards developing its young players, there's always an opportunity. There's no reason young players can't come to the Dragons and show what they’ve got to offer.
Lloyd’s always been a good rugby player, he's demonstrated he's got the ability to learn and his attitude and the way he plays the game, he's picked everything up so quickly and he's always going to be a good rugby player. He's obviously diligent and he's getting better and better.
In terms of the Dragons aims for the season – it’s simple, concentrate on the job in hand.
“To be honest we haven't really sat down and set something definite out in terms of what we plan to achieve this season. We know what is important to us. We pride ourselves on making our supporters proud. If we can achieve that and do the basics brilliantly, the rest should follow.”
