Head Coach Dai Flanagan insisted his Dragons needed to ‘stop being an almost team’ after derby day defeat to Cardiff Rugby at Rodney Parade.
The Men of Gwent went down 16-9 to the local rivals in a tight and edgy BKT United Rugby Championship encounter on home soil.
Dragons were disrupted by the late withdrawal of Number Eight Dan Lydiate while back row partners Harrison Keddie and Sean Lonsdale were both off with concussions in the opening 25 minutes.
But Flanagan refused to dwell on the back row shake-up and insisted his team needed to nail big moments.
‘We want to win, and we didn’t. A couple of errors were momentum swingers,” he said.
“I thought the group played their hearts out with all the changes. Playing with four second rows and a hooker in your back row limits your options off lineout attack and phase play.
“We almost found a way, but we need to stop being an almost team.”
Reflecting on the tactics employed, Flanagan added: “They are a threat off contact area and if you overplay against them you will get punished. You won’t see many teams playing much against Cardiff for that reason.
“We tried to execute a big maul, we could have got rewarded a bit more off it, but that is life. We’ve got to finish the chances we get and build pressure.
“Into a strong wind in the first half it is tough and if we had overplayed then we would have been 10 or 20 points behind,” he added.
“The frustration is that we caught one kick but went the wrong way and conceded seven points, then we put an edge kick through and didn’t score it for seven points.”
We almost found a way, but we need to stop being an almost team...
