Playmaker JJ Hanrahan praised the character in the Dragons RFC squad after they battled back to secure a deserved point against champions DHL Stormers.
Hanrahan scored his first try for the club as the Men of Gwent roared back from a 28-0 deficit to narrowly lose out 34-26 at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
After back-to-back games in the BKT United Rugby Championship in South Africa, attention now turns to the EPCR Challenge Cup and a return visit to Emirates Lions.
And Hanrahan is hoping that spirit and character on show last weekend can pay dividends as the tour to South Africa concludes on Saturday morning in Johannesburg (kick-off 10.45am UK).
“We’re very proud of the second half against Stormers,” he said.
“There is good character in this group, which is a good thing, they are good men, and they care a lot about the club and the team.
“I’m not surprised that we stayed in the fight. But you can't start games like that and give a team like Stormers that opportunity.
“We knew coming into the game that they're very strong in the first 20. We spoke about it. But we were just a little bit on the backfoot, we weren't meeting tackles.
“We we're letting them come on to us and it was like trying to stop a steam train out there.
“Second half we regrouped, and it was a bit more of a Dragons performance.
“The reality is that rugby’s a physical game and if you don't meet a team like Stormers on the game line, stop the ball, stop them getting offloads, you're chasing all day.
“We did better in the second half as we started straight away, but for me it's it was more of a mental attitude or how we met them and again, in the first half.”
Hanrahan pinpointed the try from Jordan Williams as a turning point for Dragons that gave the team hope after a torrid opening 40 minutes in Port Elizabeth.
And he admitted Dragons would need to start Saturday’s European game on the front foot to get a positive result.
“You can't wait to get smacked in the mouth before you react,” he stated.
“We’ve got to be throwing punches first and we probably got smacked in the mouth in the first half.
“We know we can fight back; we know we can stay in games. Dai (Flanagan) spoke at half-time about going back to basics, sticking to our game plan, because I think I touched the ball on restarts only in the first half.
“We knew once we got back to our basics, started putting pressure on them and started holding the ball, we knew that there was space there to be had.
“We did a lot better in the second half and made it a bit more of a match and a bit more of a fight.
“For us going forward as a club in the league, taking one or two points on the road is a minimum for now, and we have to win our home games,” he added. “If we can take a couple of scalps on the way that's that'd be great.
“But what I'm proud about is that our performance, our game plan, our week in week out stuff, we're building and we're trying to see more of it. Stormers was a good learning for us.”
There is good character in this group, which is a good thing, they are good men, and they care a lot about the club and the team...
