ENGLISHMAN Adam Black, the Newport Gwent Dragons prop, is targeting a place in the Wales squad next year.

Black will qualify for his adopted country on a three-year residency basis, and has already spoken to Wales coach Mike Ruddock about bidding for a squad place.

Black was one of only two players (the other being lock Peter Sidoli) who played in every game for the Dragons last season.

Ruddock tended to favour Black over Rod Snow, the Londoner starting 24 games and going on a replacement in the other five.

"I'd love to play for Wales and I've spoken to Mike about it," admitted the 29-year-old who has settled in the Mumbles area of Swansea.

"I want to play at the highest level I can, and if that happens to be for Wales then I've got no problem with that. I've put so much in that I want to look back at that achievement and say I did the best I could."

Black arrived in Wales two years ago when he joined Ebbw Vale after spending eight seasons with Wasps and two with Sale.

After a difficult year with Vale he describes last season with the Dragons as 'brilliant' though he believes everyone will be gunning for them this time after their surprising success.

"Last year was brilliant, it was unbelievable for me. I felt it was back to the Zurich Premiership standard of rugby of Wasps and Sale," he said.

"I tell myself we finished joint second in the Celtic League table and that we only lost out on bonus points which I don't believe in anyway, it should be based on whether you win more games.

"We proved a really hard team to beat. We were very aware that some sides we played were under strength, but that wasn't our problem, we can only beat what's in front of us.

"We had a hard pool in the Heineken Cup, playing against three teams who were either former winners or runners-up which was quite daunting.

"We performed against Ulster and Stade Francais at home, but we let ourselves down against Leicester and Stade blew us away over there which was disappointing.

"But though it was unfortunate for the Warriors, luckily for us a number of good players have come in to give us much more strength in depth.

"Everyone will be gunning for us now, but we've been training really hard and it's intense already."

Black is sure new coach Chris Anedsron will be a success despite his inexperience in rugby union, and he predicts the Dragons will be diifficult to turn over.

"Chris is different, he may not have the experience but he brings a great level of professionalism with him," said Black of the former Australian World Cup winning rugby league coach.

"He has done a lot more than people realise and he will have Leigh Jones as his right hand man. He will have a lot of experience around him with coaches and players, so we can't go wrong really.

"Everyone will be watching to see if the players and the coach crumble. We can't afford to drop down now, but if we stick together again we'll be hard to beat and I can't see many people troubling us.

"We really want to reach the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, and if we could become the first regional Welsh team to reach the semi-finals we would be writing history for the Dragons."