RHODRI Williams, a former pupil at Amman Valley Comprehensive School, believes that a refreshed Dragons can take renewed belief and momentum into their Guinness PRO14 Rainbow Cup campaign.

The 27 year-old scrum-half, who played junior and youth rugby in Ammanford, leads Dragons into the new competition – which will see them welcome his former club Scarlets to Rodney Parade.

“We used to finish for the season on the first week of May, but things change,” smiled Williams. “It’s a new competition and one that we can get excited for.

“There were a few weeks to refresh mentally, but we want to take the momentum from the end of the PRO14, and positives from the Northampton game into the Rainbow Cup.”

The Dragons captain, who has also played for Llandovery, Scarlets and Bristol, believes the brand of rugby that Dean Ryan’s side has produced over the last six weeks is reason to be positive.

And in recent months the Ammanford man has had fresh competition for the starting nine jersey – with new recruit and Argentina international Gonzalo Bertranou keeping him on his toes.

“We are pushing each other and trying to get the best out of each other,” said Williams. "I’ve learnt some things from his game – I’m not sure he’s learnt a lot from me, but it’s all good!

“Competition is needed at the highest level; you know that if you are not performing then somebody else will step in.

“Gonzalo has definitely pushed me, and it’s given me a kick up the backside. That’s positive - and it is good that we will be battling it out moving forward.

“We’ve got other scrum-halves pushing us two as well, so we are in a good place.”

Williams said lessons have been learned, following their ‘painful’ 39-43 European defeat against Northampton Saints.

“Our performances have been significantly better over the last six weeks, we are learning as we are going and it is showing,” said Williams, who has three senior caps, and represented Wales U20s.

“The defeat to Northampton was painful because there were so many positives in that game, and we could and should have pushed on to win,” he added.

“We went a bit passive and tried hanging on to win, rather than keeping to the plan of how we want to play and putting it on them – but credit to Northampton, they came at us second half and scored some impressive tries.

“We will take plenty of positives, but there is plenty to work on as well.

"It’s a good learning experience for us, we are disappointed to have lost and it really hurts, but there is still a lot that we can take from that game going forward."