Dragons plan fiery start

Castleford v Les Catalans, Saturday 6pm, Sky Sports 2

Last updated: 6th February 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Dragons plan fiery start

McGuire: scrum-half role

If we can all stay on the park and some young French fellows stand up and take their opportunities, I think we can definitely make the top six.

Casey McGuire
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Former Brisbane Broncos back Casey McGuire is relishing the prospect of leading Les Catalans in the Dragons' third season in Super League.

McGuire takes over as skipper from the legendary Stacey Jones and will also fill Jones' number seven jersey - despite not being a specialist scrum-half.

"He's leaving a big hole but we've got blokes like Jerome Guisset, Alex Chan and Adam Mogg who are natural leaders and we can hopefully fill the void," said McGuire, who has been named team captain with Guisset and Chan sharing the role of club captain.

Challenge

"I haven't had a heap of experience at half-back but I'm really looking forward to the challenge.

"Depending on how I go, Mick is still going to keep an eye out for a half-back but hopefully I can do the job for the first half of the year anyway."

The Dragons finished 10th last season, a marked improvement on their wooden-spoon showing in their first year, and will have their sights set on a top-six spot when they kick off their new campaign at promoted Castleford on Saturday.

"We're very excited about this year," added McGuire. "We've got a lot of French talent that's looking really good.

Top six

"If we can all stay on the park and some young French fellows stand up and take their opportunities, I think we can definitely make the top six.

"I think our forward pack is looking really good. Obviously losing Stacey is a massive blow but we're reasonably confident we can have a good season.

"It's going to be a very tough first match. Castleford will be fired up and their crowd is going to be very excited at being back in Super League.

"Last season we weren't very consistent away from home so hopefully we can get off to a win in our first game."

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