CENTRE Sam Beard is relishing the chance to welcome some old friends to his rather cosier home on Sunday after swapping Edinburgh for Newport Gwent Dragons.

The 26-year-old from New Zealand made the move to the land of his grandfather from Monmouth in the summer after three campaigns in the Scottish capital.

Beard has settled superbly and is enjoying the tussle for midfield berths with Tyler Morgan, Jack Dixon and Adam Warren.

He has made 10 appearances (seven starts) and last Friday he crossed for a brace in the 36-21 Anglo-Welsh Cup win against the Scarlets at Rodney Parade.

That was the Dragons’ third success on the spin in Newport and he is looking forward to trying to make it four against his old teammates (kick-off 3.30pm) to climb above them to eighth in the Guinness Pro12.

“We’ve had a bit of a rollercoaster so far this season but it’s still early days and we’ve won three in a row at home and want to build on that,” he said.

“Rodney Parade has a good atmosphere, great crowd and everything is nice and close as opposed to playing at Murrayfield where it’s pretty empty in a 65,000 stadium.

“I’ve noticed a big difference in having a crowd that’s close. That’s been an issue for Edinburgh for a while and they will be a lot happier moving to Myreside next year.”

One would assume that the two dates against Edinburgh were the first ones that Beard looked for on Pro12 fixture day but the softly-spoken centre insists that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I hadn’t really thought too much about it to be honest and was up in Edinburgh last weekend catching up with a few friends,” he said.

“It’s just another game really. It’s an old club and I have a lot of friend there but it’s just another game and I have to do my job and get on with it. Everyone moves at some point.”

He will be locking horns with a different Edinburgh to the one he left following the departure of South African coach Alan Solomons with Duncan Hodge acting as caretaker boss.

“In the past they were quite direct but they seem to be offloading and attacking more,” said Beard.

“But we just need to keep playing the way that we’ve been playing. We need to kick well but we want to keep the ball and build in attack because we’ve been scoring quite a few tries in the last few weeks.”

The teams are named at midday.