Kristian Dacey admits it's a huge honour for himself and his family to skipper Cardiff Blues, after being appointed captain of his home region for the rest of the season.
The hooker will lead his side for the remainder of the campaign, following a long-term injury to current captain, Ellis Jenkins.
The Merthyr-born Welsh international, who edges ever-closer to his 150th appearance for the region, will begin his reign as captain as Cardiff Blues host Dragons on Friday, but insists he will take advantage of the experienced leaders around him in the squad.
“It's a massive honour for myself to be named captain. I spoke last year after the Toulouse game in the Challenge Cup, which was the first time I captained the side, about how big it was for me and my family,” said Dacey.
“It’s a challenge, no doubt. You look at Ellis [Jenkins] and Gethin [Jenkins] before that, and there’s some big names there that have led the side.
“To get that captain’s armband is a massive honour and hopefully I can step up to the occasion and lead the way in my own way.
“You look at our squad, and there are some quality players throughout. For me personally, it’s about enjoying my rugby.
“I spent a lot of last season sat on the sidelines, watching the boys because of injuries, and I just want to get out there and put a performance in every single week.
“As long as my body allows me to do that then I’ll enjoy doing it, and with the players we have here it’s an absolute honour to lead them.
“Hopefully we can get some important results, especially over this Christmas period, and really put a foot forward to push ahead in the league.
“My job is to try to lead from the front. We’ve got so much experience within the group now, for me the talking isn’t the main part of the role.
“You’ve got the likes of Lloyd Williams and Gareth Anscombe who are able to boss our attack, and Josh Turnbull and Nick Williams in the pack. These are boys that I can count on to take that onus on themselves and get other boys up for the games.
“I want to lead from the front and do what I do best, which is get us on the front foot and hopefully the boys will follow.”
John Mulvihill has made three changes to the side ahead of Friday night’s clash, with Dacey featuring in a pack containing six internationals in total.
The hooker is eagerly anticipating the crucial festive derbies, and says it’s an opportunity for his side to put a marker down ahead of the New Year.
Dacey said: “There’s no game like a derby game, especially around the Christmas period where supporters come out to watch these big games.
“We’ve had a bit of a run-in with the Dragons over the years, where the games haven’t been pretty but we’ve come out on the right side.
“Hopefully we can implement our game-plan this week and show what we can do, like we did against Sarries over the last couple of weeks.
“Like I said, it’s a derby and they are like cup finals. We want to get bragging rights, supporters in work will want to get bragging rights over their colleagues.
“To us, this is like any other derby. We want to get our best foot forward, come here with the right attitude, especially in the top two inches, and really come at them.
“It all starts this week. There’s no point looking too far ahead. We’ve got a big job to do.
“The Dragons are wounded at the moment, they’ve lost their head coach and they’ll come to Cardiff with a bit of fire in their bellies.
“Hopefully we can put on a bit of a show for the supporters and getting a good win here would give us momentum going into the Scarlets and Ospreys games and into the New Year.”
Tickets are still available for Friday's huge Guinness PRO14 derby against Dragons! Click HERE to find out more!