New Jebel Ali Dragons head coach Bruce Pendrey insists last season’s debacle is forgotten and the most important thing now is that the club moves forward.

The Englishman was unveiled by Dragons a few weeks ago as the man to replace Sean Crombie and Murray Strang, the players who combined coaching duties last season.

Having taken over from treble-winning coach Ross Mills, the experiment backfired badly on the Centre of Excellence outfit, who surrendered all three UAE Premiership, Dubai Sevens and West Asia Cup titles from the previous two seasons.

Pendrey, despite being aged just 26, has been handed the reins and is not dwelling on the past.

“I know Dragons have been very successful over the years, that’s obviously very attractive, but I don’t know too much about last season to be honest,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter what happened. I’m not really up to speed and there’s not really a major focus on last season.

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“It’s definitely a clean slate. It’s more about moving forward as a club. I’ve not really been given any mandate by the club. We’re building the foundations to have a successful season and we’ll see what happens. We’re in a good place right now and hopefully there are good things to come.”

Despite his tender years the Hartpury College graduate Pendrey claims not to be daunted by the task of picking up the pieces at Dragons.

“It is and it isn’t (daunting),” he said. “I don’t think it is. I’ve got the assistance of the likes of Harty (director of rugby Paul Hart) and Ross (Samson, first team captain), and we have a group of lads that are really keen to develop and learn, and that’s the key thing for me. “It’s not a case of being daunting at all, it’s more a case of here we are and being here to enjoy ourselves.”

He may be young but Pendrey already has a wealth of experience behind him. Part of his education involved a year’s placement with the Canterbury Rugby Union, where he studied under the Canterbury Crusaders’ academy coaches, even learning from All Blacks forwards coach Mike Cron.