NEWPORT Gwent Dragons' young guns have been urged to give it their all in every session in front of Wales boss Warren Gatland by a man who knows all about being a World Cup 'bolter'.

Burgeoning backs Hallam Amos, Tyler Morgan and Jack Dixon are currently being put through their paces at a gruelling training camp in Switzerland ahead of England 2015.

The trio are attempting to force their way into Gatland's 31-strong squad for the tournament and hope to feature in the warm-up Tests against Ireland next month to press their claims.

Amos is the only member of the Dragons trio to have been capped before – a solitary Test against Tonga in the autumn of 2013 – but Lloyd Burns knows that experience isn't everything.

The former hooker wasn't capped until June, 2011 but that autumn he was a member of the squad that made it to the semi-finals of the tournament in New Zealand.

"They've got nothing to lose," said the 30-year-old from Pontypool, who won seven caps before being forced to retire on medical grounds just months after the World Cup.

"There are players who are already on that teamsheet but the young boys just have to go out there every day and train as hard as they can, then play their own game (in the warm-ups).

"They have nothing to fear but have to stay switched on because Warren watches those sessions closely. He likes to see boys putting it in and I think he likes a bit of rough and tumble in training, so if you've got that in your game things are in your favour.

"Everybody is equal when they go into camp and it's down to the individuals to prove themselves better than their opposite man.

"I'd tell the young boys to not hold anything back. Go for it because everybody is new at some stage and has to earn respect."

Burns made an incredibly rise from being the bricklaying captain at Cross Keys to being a professional at Rodney Parade to being in the matchday squad in a World Cup semi-final.

He was next to captain Sam Warburton on the bench after the flanker was dismissed in that agonising last-four defeat to France and knows first-hand that the toil in Switzerland, Qatar and Poland is a necessary evil.

"All the World Cup teams put themselves through it and know where they need to be at," said Burns. "It's a mental thing, knowing that you have the fitness in the bank."

See page 38 for a feature on Burns' World Cup memories