THE rugby hotbed of Blaina has produced some famous sons over the years from the legendary Dai Watkins to Wales’ 2005 Grand Slam-winning coach Mike Ruddock.

And the little village is responsible for generating three more prominent figures engaged in an interesting duel tomorrow night at Rodney Parade.

Newport Gwent Dragons outside-half Shaun Connor will skipper the region for the first time in a competitive match. But plotting his downfall is Sale director of rugby Kingsley Jones and their, wait for it, kicking, conditioning and strategy coach Byron Hayward.

Connor, 33, is eagerly looking forward to the match and has fond memories of ex-Wales international Hayward.

He said: “Byron was someone who I looked up to. He was something of a local hero as a Wales youth player and prominent Abertillery outside-half.

“I’m sure I was a ball boy when he was at Abertillery.”

And Connor said former Wales skipper Jones was always cut out for his future career: “Whenever you played against Kingsley, you knew he was destined to be a coach.

“He was always noisy on the field and a good organiser. He captained a lot of the sides he played for and I thought he would take the step up and be a coach.”

As a player who has played in an Anglo-Welsh cup final, losing there with the Ospreys against Leicester Tigers in 2006, Connor said the LV trophy is definitely one that sides want to win.

“The experience of playing in front of 60,000 people at Twickenham was a fantastic one. It would be a great to win this.”

Connor, who has played much of this season for Newport in the Premiership, said he was delighted to captain the Dragons again after he was skipper against Coventry in a pre-season friendly: “It’s a great honour to captain my own region and we’ll be looking to put on a good performance for our supporters and win.”

Sale have yet to announce their squad – due to be named today – and it will be interesting if Wales scrum-half Dwayne Peel plays for Sale after he was the centre of a club v country battle.

Wales’ big showdown with the All Blacks on Saturday is outside the designated international window.