Boss Dean Ryan admitted his Dragons lacked leadership and failed to manage the game as they slipped to a disappointing 37-25 loss to Benetton Rugby in the Guinness PRO14 at Rodney Parade.
Dragons grabbed three tries on the night through Rhodri Williams, Will Talbot-Davies and Elliot Dee.
However, Director of Dragons Ryan was left frustrated by the display as a five-game winning streak on home soil in all competitions came to a halt.
“It was poor on lots of fronts, disappointing on a lot of fronts,” he said.
“I don’t think we managed the game very well, two soft tries at the start of each half and we just lost collective energy.
“It started to go off script and they did whatever they wanted to do. When that happens, it might be with good intent, but it drains energy from everybody else.
“I can’t imagine what the missed tackle count was but that’ll be as high as we’ve ever had."
Dragons were without fly half Sam Davies for the game, but Ryan insisted other players needed to step up to the plate in his absence.
“That’s an opportunity for other people to show what they’ve learned - today is an example that we haven’t,” he added.
“We lacked the leadership of Sam, but we can’t make this side rely on one person.
“You can see when it doesn’t have clear leadership it just becomes a hotchpotch of all sorts of things and nobody really knows what it is.
“That clarity is crucial to maintain energy and we just lacked clarity today on what we were trying to do and we got out-thought.
“In the first half we got ourselves back in the game. They changed the nine at half-time, as it’s quite clear that you can’t run out there, but we think we can and just get caught in a noose we can’t get out of.
“That’s an example of how much we have to learn behind the group that’s fronting for us.
“Last week was a step forward, we are young and we have got lots of people out there, but our leadership lacks clarity and you can see how easy it is to unravel.”
That’s an example of how much we have to learn behind the group that’s fronting for us...
