Hallam Amos is excited by the potential of the Cardiff Blues squad as he visited the Arms Park for the first time since making the summer move to Wales’ Capital Region.
The 19-times capped international, who moves from regional rivals Dragons, was at his new home, alongside the rest of Cardiff Blues’ international contingent, for photograph and videography purposes ahead of the new campaign.
Amos joins the deadly back three ranks at Cardiff Arms Park, which includes the likes of Owen Lane, Aled Summerhill, Matthew Morgan, Dan Fish, Jason Harries and another summer recruit in Josh Adams.
The back three star believes competition will benefit the whole squad, and he is looking forward to playing attractive, attacking rugby with his new region.
“The whole set-up is fantastic and it’s obviously Wales’ Capital Region. It’s an exciting place to be and hopefully we’ll see some success on the pitch,” said Amos.
“There’s a really good nucleus of young boys - from Dillon in the front row, through to Tomos and Jarrod who are fantastic players, and I bonded well with those boys on last summer’s tour to Argentina.
“Owen and Josh are both fantastic players. I’ve only met Laney recently but he’s settled in nicely with the national boys and has been doing really well.
“We’ve all seen what Josh can do on the pitch over the last year. It will be fantastic to play with both of them and it can only bode well for Cardiff Blues.
“Competition breeds success, and there are other boys here who I’ve played with before like Jason Harries and Nipper [Matthew Morgan] and they’re both fantastic players, as well as Aled and others as well.
"I haven’t worked under a head coach who used to be a back, and I’ve been getting on well with Mulvers, he’s a lovely guy.
“We’ve also got Richie here at backs coach, who I played alongside for years at Dragons, so hopefully we can chuck it around quite a bit this season.
“It’s exciting, and hopefully we’ll get plenty of hands on the ball!
“There’s a really good set-up here at the Arms Park, and I’m lucky to know a lot of the boys already and they’ve been really welcoming.
“It’s been nice to meet all the staff around the building and I’m just looking forward to get going here.
“The support at the Arms Park, and the pitch is brilliant and was something that definitely drew me to the club.”
Amos and the rest of the Wales squad are currently preparing for the Rugby World Cup in Japan, which kicks off in just over a month.
The Cardiff Blues star admits training has been gruesome, but insists everyone in the squad is focused on putting Wales in the best possible position when they get their tournament underway against Georgia on September 23.
He added: “It’s been pretty brutal and the first couple of months were quite tough, with a lot of fitness work.
“But I think we’re in a good place for it and now the games have started it’s good to get some rugby under the belts.
“Hopefully I’ll be able to get a run out over the next few weeks and there will be a pretty big prize at the end of that for the boys, which is a place in the final World Cup squad.”