They both involve long hours on a plane but that's where the similarities between this year's journey to the UK and the Dragons' 2011 World Club Challenge trip end according to veteran winger Jason Nightingale.

The last time the Dragons travelled to England they were riding high on the back of the joint-venture's maiden premiership and the club's first in 23 years. They rode the wave all the way to a 21-15 World Club Challenge victory over Wigan, their last piece of silverware.

Dugan cleared for World Club Series

They went 10-1 to start the 2011 NRL season on the way to the club's last finals appearance in Wayne Bennett's final year at the helm. They've since gone three years without tasting finals football.

There's no silverware on the line this time and with a new team and a new coach looking to avoid a fourth straight season without tasting finals football, Nightingale said the objectives are vastly different this time around.

"It made for a good night out on the way home," Nightingale said of 2011 trip.

Go to the Dragons Den

"It was awesome to get the medal for a World Club Challenge but in this instance we're not playing for that. It's something you normally only get to do when you win a comp but this time they've let us do it when we finished 11th.

"It's more about us [this time] and what we're doing on the field. It's still a trial at the end of the day and we're just going to try put on the field all the stuff we've been doing in off-season.

''We're not worrying too much about anything else. We only have to play them once, we don't play in their comp, so for this one game we want to put in a good performance heading into round one."

Pre-season form is a notoriously unreliable gauge of a side's prospects come the start of the season but Nightingale said the team's energy levels and defensive will from the Charity Shield match were most pleasing.

The Dragons also announced on Wednesday that former Rabbitohs and Eels winger Justin Hunt has joined the club on a one-year deal. The 26-year-old endured an injury-riddled season last year - his first with the Eels after shifting from the Rabbitohs - that saw just one top-grade appearance. He played 12 of his 14 NRL games for the Rabbitohs in the 2012 season but has seen little NRL action since.