Aaron Wainwright has challenged Dragons to produce a full 80-minute performance against Northampton Saints in Europe - after witnessing what he dubbed the best half of rugby in his time at the region.
Back row ace Wainwright returned to Dean Ryan’s starting line-up for Sunday’s league finale against Edinburgh, fresh from celebrating the Six Nations title triumph with Wales 24 hours earlier.
Wainwright helped the region beat the Scots 24-17 in Cardiff - a win which made it three victories in their last four PRO14 outings.
And the 23-year-old now wants Dragons to take that momentum into Saturday’s big last 16 European Challenge Cup clash with the Saints at Rodney Parade.
“The boys have been on form the last couple of weeks, we’re three from four, so it was a good end to our PRO14 campaign,” he said.
“That first 35 minutes against Edinburgh is probably some of the best rugby I’ve been a part of while with the Dragons.
“I’m very proud of how we played in the first half; for a minute I thought we were going to do it (qualify for the Champions Cup with a 45-point winning margin).
“The message before the game was to be direct, keep things simple and then some of the fancy stuff would take care of itself.
“As we went ahead and started to look comfortable, we possibly tried to force things.
“For us now, pushing on, it’s about trying to do that consistently and seeing how we can bring it for the whole 80 minutes,” he added.
“We’ve been building very strongly towards the end of the campaign and we’re definitely moving in the right direction.
“Hopefully we can take the momentum from the past couple of games into Saturday and we’re looking forward to getting back out there.
“We’ll have to look back at where things went wrong in the second half on Sunday, how we can change it and possibly not chase the game as much. Then hopefully we can put in a full 80-minute performance.”
Before the Edinburgh encounter, prop Lloyd Fairbrother spoke about a unified atmosphere around the squad over the last month.
And after returning from Wales duty, Wainwright admitted he could sense the positivity.
“Lloyd hit the nail on the head,” he added. “Players are playing for each other and we’re building very well, which is exciting.
“Watching the boys against Glasgow, they held out in the last few minutes with some amazing defensive sets, and we did the same against Edinburgh.
“We probably shouldn’t have let it get to that stage, but the boys wanted to dig in for each other. There is that real unity here.”
That first 35 minutes against Edinburgh is probably some of the best rugby I’ve been a part of while with the Dragons...
