Angus O’Brien is adamant Dragons have learnt the lessons of opening day defeat – and believes getting a derby day win for the Rodney Parade faithful would be huge.
O’Brien will hope to be involved in the BKT United Rugby Championship derby encounter with Cardiff Rugby on Sunday afternoon (kick-off 2.30pm).
The Men of Gwent were left with a sense of frustration on the opening weekend as Edinburgh fought back to claim a slender victory.
Next up is a derby encounter on home soil and O’Brien admits it will be a special occasion at Rodney Parade as Dragons look to claim an overdue derby win.
“We’re all looking forward to Sunday. Emotions are always different for a derby game,” said the 29-year-old, who has now made 86 appearances over two spells in Newport.
“It's a great opportunity for us back at Rodney Parade, which is massive, and hopefully we'll have a great crowd, who are always behind us. To give them a victory against Cardiff would be huge.
“There’s been a bit of frustration this week,” he added. “Obviously we've got a massive fixture this weekend, a local derby, and you can tell with a bit of edge in training.
“The boys are looking forward to hopefully righting a few of those wrongs from last weekend and putting in a performance.
“It is emotional, everyone knows each other. We play each other quite a lot so it does have a different edge to it and a different feel.
“We obviously want to win; I feel like we're good enough and we will have a very good chance of doing that this weekend.”
O’Brien has been pleased by what he has seen on the training paddock this close season – underlined by an impressive opening 40 minutes of the campaign when Dragons could have scored more.
“We’ve worked hard this summer,” he said. “What we have got is a lot of competition in the group.
“You see it day in day out, boys are competitive, and the standard of training is good. That's only going to bring us on.
“It's now just about having that killer instinct and capitalising on the opportunities. We're creating them in abundance, we just need to be smart and clinical when those opportunities do arise.”
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It's a great opportunity for us back at Rodney Parade, which is massive, and hopefully we'll have a great crowd, who are always behind us. To give them a victory against Cardiff would be huge...
