THE Dragons have bolstered their management team with the appointment of South African Hendre Marnitz as defence coach, writes Chris Kirwan.

The former Blue Bulls coach has already been at work with his new charges as part of boss Bernard Jackman’s staff at the training base in Ystrad Mynach, working alongside fellow assistants Shaun Connor and Ceri Jones.

Marnitz has spent most of his coaching career with the Pretoria club in the Currie Cup but worked for the Buccaneers in Athlone between 2010 and 2012 after having a short spell with the Indian national side.

He has held a number of roles throughout his coaching life but will be responsible for defence and also the Dragons’ exit strategy (the practice of getting out of their own territory).

“I am relishing the opportunity to work in Welsh rugby,” said the former scrum-half. “There are a lot of great rugby traditions within the region and my first impressions are that we have a young exciting group of players who are hungry to learn and are hard-working.

“I am also looking forward to putting our systems in place and seeing how the group evolves over the next couple of weeks.”

The Dragons have long operated without a specialist defence coach – in the past the likes of Colin Charvis, Rob Appleyard and Kingsley Jones have carried out the role in addition to having other responsibilities.

The appointment of Marnitz fits in with Jackman’s desire for every member of his backroom team to be accountable for a primary facet of the game.

“When we get everybody on board we will have people responsible for one, or a maximum of two, areas,” the Irishman told the Argus last month. “I will then manage that and nobody interferes with that apart from me.”

The ex-hooker, who took over the Rodney Parade reins from Kingsley Jones this summer, is pleased to have another right-hand man.

“Hendre is a coach that I got to know well when he coached in Ireland in 2011,” said Jackman. “He returned to South Africa to play a very important role in the Bulls’ elite development programme.

“He has coached and helped to produce many Springbok Internationals and his knowledge and expertise will be invaluable, in bringing through the young Dragons that we believe will bring success to our region and who will represent Wales too.”

Marnitz joins a sizeable South African contingent at the Dragons ahead of a Guinness PRO14 campaign that will pit them against the Southern Kings twice and Cheetahs once.

Former Springboks full-back/wing Zane Kirchner arrived from Leinster this summer to link up with lock Rynard Landman, prop Brok Harris, scrum-half Sarel Pretorius, wing Pat Howard and full-back Carl Meyer.