BERNARD Jackman will not be actively seeking any more new faces to join his Dragons squad before the Guinness PRO14 season gets under way next weekend.

While the Rodney Parade chief admits that recruitment is a part of the Welsh region’s future ambitions, he wants to give the current squad a fair crack of the whip first.

It has been a relatively quiet summer for the Dragons in the transfer market with Gavin Henson, Zane Kirchner, Gerard Ellis and Liam Belcher the only fresh additions to the roster.

When asked whether the Dragons could make further signings, Jackman said: “I’m sure we can but they’ve got to be right.

“I said in the first week that I wanted to give the group I inherited an opportunity to prove themselves and hopefully, in a better environment, get that extra 10 per cent out of each individual.

“We’re starting to see that in glimpses but obviously there’s a lot of work to do.

“But I wouldn’t like to bring anybody in unless it was for an injury crisis.

“It’s still early doors and we want to give everybody a chance.

“Obviously we’re ambitious and we want to be a top club so recruitment will be part of that, but that will come at the back end rather than the front.”

One of Jackman’s new recruits, South African Kirchner, is someone the head coach rates highly, and the full-back showed signs of what he can do at Exeter last Saturday.

On the Springbok international, Jackman added: “Zane is just a bundle of energy with the way he trains and plays, it’s at 100mph.

“He’s a very good player, very highly rated at Leinster, and since he has come into our environment I can’t speak highly enough of him.

“When he plays in the back field he never stops talking and gives everybody a lot of clarity about where they should be.

“It’s still early days but we look sounder defensively when he’s playing.”