Dean Ryan vowed ‘hard conversations’ would be held after Dragons fell to heavy defeat on the opening night of the BKT United Rugby Championship in Scotland.
Edinburgh secured a try bonus 44-6 win in what was a difficult first game of the new campaign for the Men of Gwent.
A clinical second half surge from the Scots saw them pull clear and left Ryan to issue a no-nonsense assessment of the game at the DAM Health Stadium.
“We need to hold some hard conversations about how that can happen in the first game of the season,” he said.
“For the start of the season, after some of the quality we’ve shown in pre-season, that is not where we need to be.
“I thought we looked nervous in the first 20 minutes when we had some opportunities and couldn’t hold onto the ball.
“The second half is not good enough. Too many basic mistakes and if we're going to get better, we need to hold some hard conversations about why these things keep turning up.
“We can't afford to let a side score from their own 22 from a kick-off.
“We've got supposed talent in that side, but I don't see it at the moment.
“It is going to be interesting to see where players take it,” he added.
“There's a lot of people talking now, it’ll be interesting to see what they do about it.
“I think there is a point when senior players need to come together and take it in a strong direction.
“I don't think this is about tactically what we're doing the middle third or anything else, this is about some key fundamentals that we're not getting right. We need to discuss those internally.”
Dragons must now regroup before back-to-back home games with Munster and Cell C Sharks at Rodney Parade.
“We've got to play together, got to hold conversations together, and we've got to go out and get better,” said Ryan.
“We are better than we were today so we will see if we can respond to that.”
The second half is not good enough... if we're going to get better, we need to hold some hard conversations about why these things keep turning up...
