The Dragons' star fullback Percy Montgomery is the toast of his team-mates after beginning the New Year with a bang.
The 50-Test Springbok wizard scored 23 points in The Dragons' 38-15 Celtic League victory over The Borders on Friday night, and there was further good news for his mates after the match.
Montgomery won a bottle of whisky for his man-of-the-match performance, but had to give it away after admitting to a New Year's eve resolution not to drink this year.
And the blond fullback says that after spending six months of 2003 on the sidelines thanks to a ban for pushing over a touch-judge, 2004 will be a year to remember - starting with this Saturday's Heineken Cup match against French giants Stade Francais at Rodney Parade.
"Stade Francais will be a huge step up, the pace will be faster and we've got to play for 80 minutes," he said.
"In rugby anything is possible. It's quite an open pool and the guys must believe in themselves. They've got to turn up on Saturday and give it everything."
Montgomery played fullback against The Borders after slotting in at fly-half for the previous match against Leicester Tigers. He scored a try and kicked 18 points in the impressive win.
"I'm glad I was given another opportunity at fullback - I needed to pick up my game a bit," he admitted.
Dragons coach Mike Ruddock is waiting on injury reports on Scotland backrower Ross Beattie (hamstring), goal-kicking fly-half Lee Jarvis (back), winger Nathan Brew (facial injury) and hooker Steve Jones (ribs).
