HALLAM Amos believes the Dragons’ new high-octane training regime is helping to turn their Wales contingent into proper Test contenders.

The winger will start tomorrow’s autumn encounter with Georgia at Principality Stadium along with his regional teammates Leon Brown and Cory Hill at tighthead and lock respective.

Uncapped hooker Elliot Dee is among the replacements to make it the biggest Dragons contingent in a Wales 23 since Taulupe Faletau, Dan Lydiate, Luke Charteris and Lloyd Burns featured against Australia in the third-place play-off at the 2011 World Cup.

The quartet will aim to impress Warren Gatland to add to their tally of caps against New Zealand and South Africa this autumn, plus keep their places in the squad for the Six Nations.

And Amos believes they now have the trust of the Wales management thanks to their tougher, shorter and intense training regime under new Dragons head coach Bernard Jackman at their Ystrad Mynach headquarters.

“One of first things ‘Gats’ said was our training intensity at the Dragons has been the best out of all the regions. Bernard has brought that in and it has definitely benefited us,” said Amos, who will win his 13th cap against the Georgians.

“There are more of us here now with five at the beginning and now four with Tyler [Morgan] unfortunately going [because of an ankle injury].

“But we used to come in and the first week would be really tough; our hamstrings would be on fire because we weren’t used to the running load.

“As we’ve got a bit older and the Dragons have upped the training intensity, it definitely means that we’ve got a better starting platform when we come into camp.”

Jackman has tried to implement a more enterprising approach at Rodney Parade with the aim of getting the ball into the hands of strike runners out wide.

He has brought ball-playing back row forward James Benjamin in from the cold while Dee has flourished, scoring five tries and developing his offloading game.

Amos believes that approach has also helped to catch the eye of the international coaches, who are expanding their own game in the run-up to the 2019 World Cup.

“As Rob Howley said, all four regions are trying to play this way. We want to use the forwards runners as ball handlers not just carrying it up,” said the winger.

“It bodes well for Wales that all the regions are trying to play in a similar way and while the Scarlets are having the most success at the moment, all the regions are trying to emulate this pathway.”

Former Springbok Zane Kirchner’s shoulder injury has led to Amos featuring at full-back for the Dragons but he will wear 11 on his back in Cardiff tomorrow.

It’s his first Test start since facing the All Blacks in the summer of 2016 and he is just happy to be in the back three alongside Liam Williams and fellow winger Alex Cuthbert.

“I still think personally that full-back is my favourite position but I don’t know long-term where the guys at the top see me,” he said.

“Gats felt I had a decent game there against the Ospreys and it’s different way of attacking when you see the defence in front of you and you can pick holes and angles.

“When you are on the wing the defence is coming across and it’s harder to use your footwork.

“But I’ve said in the past that I’m happy to play wherever and it’s very interchangeable these days – if you are on the wing you will end up at full-back, as Liam Williams and Leigh Halfpenny showed last weekend.”