Aled Davies is determined to help Cardiff become the best team in Wales after arriving from Saracens this summer.
The scrum-half, who has won 20 caps for Wales, arrived at the Arms Park following four years in North London.
During that time the 32-year-old lifted the English Premiership title and after returning across the border, he insists Cardiff must grow on and off the pitch to re-establish themselves as the leading team in Wales.
Davies kept a close eye on Cardiff last season and was impressed by the never-say-die attitude of Matt Sherratt’s side and the emphatic support from the terraces.
Cardiff enjoyed three sell out occasions at their iconic home and saw their average attendance grow by more than 1,000 thanks to an exciting brand of rugby played by a young and up and coming squad.
Davies jumped at the opportunity to join the Blue & Blacks and he is now determined to help his new teammates turn narrow loses into victories.
He said: “There's so much talent here at the Arms Park, so I’m really excited to see what we can do. I loved it (last year).
“The style of play. The biggest thing I saw as well was the fight the boys had. They fought for everything, defensively, in attack and you could see the crowd getting behind them. A lot of games last year they were sell-outs and the atmosphere looked unbelievable.
“The aim is to improve from last year, play same kind of rugby and stuff but there were a lot of losing bonus points last year so hopefully we can get over the line with some more wins.
“There’s a lot of factors to that but hopefully I can influence those games as best as I can and try and get us over the line.
“It's 100% the target and the target's got to be the best Welsh region really in everything we do. Off the field, on the field, having results. So that's the biggest focus personally.”
Matt Sherratt is someone the scrum-half knows well from his time at the Ospreys and the Cardiff Rugby head coach has made a concerted effort to add experience to the squad in the off-season.
Davies, along with the likes of Ed Byrne, Josh McNally, Dan Thomas and Callum Sheedy, have been signed to bring knowledge and leadership to a young and promising group.
And that responsibility is something the former Scarlets, Ospreys and Saracens man is relishing.
He continued: “I worked with Jockey at the Ospreys for two years. Just the way he looks at the game, we’re very similar and the rugby he wants to play is something I really want to be a part of. So it's really exciting to work with him again.
“Obviously you can see who we’ve signed, you know, they're back end of the 20s, early 30s, so they’ve been around and had a lot of experiences. That's only beneficial for these young boys coming through.
“Saracens was the best four years of my rugby career. It’s an unbelievable club. It’s a very successful environment, we had success when I was there and the standards that are driven there on a daily basis is of a very high standard.
“So the experience I've got coming back from there, obviously we've got a young squad and hopefully I can drip feed a lot of that in and learn off the young guys as well here.”