Interim Head Coach Filo Tiatia praised the manner with which his side battled back against Montpellier in Europe – but admitted they were left to rue missed opportunities at a stormy Rodney Parade.
Taine Basham and Angus O’Brien grabbed first half tries as the Men of Gwent rallied from 18-0 down to trail by just four at the break.
A tight but ultimately scoreless second period saw Dragons fail to capitalise on opportunities as they were forced to settle for a solitary point in the Pool 2 opener on home soil.
"The mood is quite sombre and the realisation of opportunities missed again," said Tiatia.
"We weren't clinical enough and there were some moments where we did not play as a team. We just have to learn faster.
“The character of the team and the DNA of this place is Gwent and blue collar. They try and work hard for each other and we managed to get back into the game.
"We’ve just got to review it and be honest with each other, focus on some of the things that we need to be better at.
“You see moments that were much better than last week, some of the young guys learnt some valuable lessons and they will be better for it.
“We want to expose some of our youth,” he added.
“Some of them are not quite ready yet, but at some point they have got to be exposed, otherwise they won’t get a chance.
“All the Welsh teams have got small squads and we’ve got to try and rotate players around so we can be better. They always want to be better.”
Dragons now face a trip to the northeast of England to tackle Newcastle Falcons in Round 2 on Sunday (November 15).
“Newcastle are similar to our region, they are tough and a hard-working team that play percentages,” added Tiatia.
“We’ll have a good look at them, and it’ll be interesting to see what side they put out.
“But they will be tough up there and we are under no illusions as to the size of the assignment next Sunday.”
You see moments that were much better than last week, some of the young guys learnt some valuable lessons and they will be better for it...
