JUNIOR All Black Hoani MacDonald finally arrives at Rodney Parade at the end of this week to give Newport Gwent Dragons just the boost they need to build on their recent successes.

MacDonald, pictured, is the last of the four New Zealanders head coach Paul Turner signed – new captain Tom Willis, James Arlidge and Grant Webb the others – after two visits Down Under earlier this year.

But whereas the other three arrived in the summer, MacDonald’s contract prevented him from leaving until his obligations with province Southland were completed.

They kept winning in the Air New Zealand Cup and progressed all the way to the semi-finals before finally losing against Wellington at the weekend.

That means MacDonald will link up with his compatriots at Rodney Parade later this week, though he won’t be considered for Saturday’s EDF Energy Cup-tie against Gloucester at Kingsholm, his debut likely to come against Wasps, also away, a week on Sunday.

MacDonald can play at lock or blindside flanker – the position he has been playing in for Southland – and he has impressed Turner even more as he has watched his performances on television.

MacDonald’s arrival will enable lock Adam Jones, who has valiantly played in every game this season despite carrying a shoulder injury, to go into hospital for a minor operation.

Openside Richard Parks is due to have a similar operation, taking advantage of the three-week break in November at the same time.

Turner said: “This is still a new team and we are not quite there yet, but Hoani has been a vital part of a good Southland side who got to the semi-finals of the cup.

“They went within 10 minutes of beating Wellington and he had a great send-off.

“I signed him in March. We’ve got a good player who will add to our resources and if I could have put him on at Bath who knows? The Heineken Cup is all about resources.

“We are building slowly. We are not going to win the Heineken Cup, but we always said this was a three-year plan and in the first year we would be competitive which is what we were against Bath.

“We have got a committed bunch of players, all the regions in Wales were physically muscling up and we were always behind the rest. We’ve just got to have that bit of skill and x-factor - that would have edged it for us at Bath, but the next time we go there we will definitely win.”

* EDF opponents Gloucester, who have transformed their ground, have been joined by a major new investor, telecommunications entrepreneur Martin St Quinton who is thought to have paid club owners the Walkinshaw family about £4m for a 25% shareholding in the club and will join the board immediately.