Head Coach Dai Flanagan branded the derby defeat to Cardiff Rugby as ‘unacceptable’ and apologised to fans after the painful watch in the capital.
The Men of Gwent slipped to a painful 55-21 Boxing Day defeat at Cardiff Arms Park in the BKT United Rugby Championship.
And an honest Flanagan did not mix his words after the performance.
“This is the lowest I’ve been. I’ve been in rugby a long time and to see that first half performance was really difficult,” said Flanagan.
“We seemed to train well, prepare well, there was a good buzz, and then you see that on the field.
“It is difficult to understand why, and we have got to figure out why because that is unacceptable in a derby game against your local rivals.
“We massively froze – individually and collectively. They put some pressure on us, and we cracked.
“We are sorry, and I’m personally sorry, because that is not acceptable.
“We could have got a try bonus, but let’s be honest, we didn’t deserve anything out of today.
“The right result happened on the back of that first half performance. It would have been wrong to take a point away.
“If it is one or two things it is easy to fix, but then you see that, on the back of the two weeks where we have collectively been good.
“The intensity, the pressure, the physicality that Cardiff put on us, we didn’t have an answer for.
“Like I said to the group, that is not acceptable. It is a big occasion and big players play in big games, but we didn’t play.”
Dragons next face Scarlets on New Year’s Day and Flanagan admitted that his team needed to respond and never repeat the manner of defeat in Cardiff.
“We have to be honest with each other,” he stated. “It’s really difficult to put any positive on something like that.
“Things like that should never happen. We should be collectively tighter, to see us not connecting is an issue. We must be in this together.
“I don’t want to take any positives from that. That is not good enough, the biggest occasion this club and Cardiff have had in a long time, and it was over in 25 minutes. Nobody wants to watch that.
“We can’t accept that and go looking for reactions. If I am the Scarlets I am licking my lips to play us next week.
“Europe was good and comfortable. It didn’t have half the intensity and pressure that Cardiff put us under. We cracked and we must figure out why we do under these stressful times.
“When teams get their tails up, we don’t seem to be able to adjust and stay in the contest. We’ve got to sort it out.
“It’s difficult. I really enjoy working with this group of players and have high expectations. I believe they are super talented, but they must prove that to me and today it wasn’t that.”
We are sorry, and I’m personally sorry, because that is not acceptable...
