While the result may not have gone his way on Boxing Day, co-captain Angus O’Brien admitted it was an 'awesome moment' running out with his sons for his hundredth Dragons RFC game.
O’Brien led his team out, holding sons Toby and Archie, who were also both at the captain’s run on Christmas Eve to celebrate the occasion.
“It was a real special special evening for myself,” said O’Brien. “Getting to run out with my two boys in my hundredth game was an awesome moment.
“It’s an honour to play one, let alone 100 games for the club at a packed out Rodney Parade, there's no better place to play, I’m just gutted we couldn’t get a result for the fans as they deserve it.
“The crowd are always fantastic and they’ve stuck through us through thick and thin and tonight they were brilliant.”
O’Brien scored seven points against Cardiff, meanwhile his pinpoint crossfield kick found Rio Dyer for Dragons RFC’s second try of the evening.
However, it proved not to be enough with Cardiff overturning an early 15-0 deficit to win 24-22.
“There’s no getting away from it, the result is extremely disappointing,” said O’Brien.
“The way we started the game was really good, we came firing out the blocks and I really thought we were going to see that one through.
“I’m just bitterly disappointed we weren’t able to win the game, albeit there was a lot of good out there from the boys, I think we put a really good performance in, we just couldn't see it through which is disappointing.”
After beating Ospreys with the final play in their first game of the season, Dragons have now lost four home matches this season by four points or less.
Back-to-back tight home defeats to South African sides Sharks and Lions in October were followed by a four-point loss to Montpellier in the European Challenge Cup earlier in December.
“We need to find a way to come out on the other end of these results,” said O’Brien.
“I think our performances all season have been good, just we lack those moments, that probably other teams are capitalising on and that's frustrating.
“We’re working hard to try and alleviate that from our game and I'm sure we'll come out on the back end of results.
“We’ve got another derby against Scarlets so we’ve got to recover well and it’s an opportunity for us to go again then on New Year's Day, which we’ll be looking forward to.”
It’s an honour to play one, let alone 100 games for the club at a packed out Rodney Parade, there's no better place to play...
