Dai Flanagan intends to profit from player power in his first season as head coach at the Dragons.

The former fly-half moved east from the Scarlets this summer to join Dean Ryan’s management team at Rodney Parade.

The 36-year-old wasn’t the only new boy at the Ystrad Mynach training base after nine summer signings were made, all of them experienced.

With the Dragons also having a larger group of Wales internationals, Flanagan has been keen to let the squad take the lead ahead of the United Rugby Championship.

“A big part of how I do stuff is handing over ownership to the players,” said the head coach. “They lead reviews and previews, they are trusted to do the work.

“Don't get me wrong, they are guided, but the more ownership they have the more they can develop.

“We've been creative in how we have learnt about different areas of the game and hopefully that will give them more understanding.

“I have loved the summer because we have been innovative in how we trained and tried to do stuff.

“Sometimes it can be all about hard work but actually you need to integrate the rugby smarts to help develop individuals. It has been different and I really enjoyed that.”

The real rugby starts on Saturday when the Dragons kick off their URC campaign in Edinburgh (kick-off 7.35pm).

The arrival of former Munster fly-half JJ Hanrahan should help improve the club’s game management but Flanagan believes they also need to let the handbrake off.

“There are certain non-negotiables in how we should go about our business but we've also got to back ourselves when it comes to turnovers, transition and moving the ball,” he said.

“I genuinely feel you'd struggle to find better players in space in the UK than we have here, so why not have a go?

“We want to be a team that our fans enjoy watching at Rodney Parade, putting our bodies on the line and having a go.

“I have been really excited about how sharp we have looked in pre-season in transition after turnovers, where most tries come from.”