Head Coach Dai Flanagan admitted his Dragons needed to play smarter after a disappointing 26-13 defeat to Ospreys at Swansea.com Stadium.
The Men of Gwent paid the price for a high penalty count and two yellow cards – with the hosts scoring three tries when they had the numerical advantage either side of half-time.
And frustrated boss Flanagan conceded that his team had been their own worst enemy in the BKT United Rugby Championship defeat.
“There were two areas of the game that we were completely dominated in but what doesn’t help is when that frustration spills into phase-play defence and attacking the ball,” said Flanagan.
“Sometimes you have to take your medicine and say ‘we are not in the game there, because there is a clearly dominant team, let’s be cleaner everywhere else’.
“We weren’t and that fed them, we went down to 13 men and there was a massive momentum swing.
“They had smarts in abundance, with Justin Tipuric being around the ball and he got a lot of decisions. Rightly so, because he was there first.
“We didn’t have the smarts and our challenge is for the youngsters to learn.
“I am excited by that because Joe Westwood and Ryan Woodman were excellent while Chris Hollis gives us something we haven’t got in Welsh rugby.
“But the game starts in certain areas and we couldn’t compete in them.”
“For 26 minutes we were good, we were disciplined, and they were frustrated. It got to a pinch-point where they realised they had us in areas and they went to them,” added Flanagan.
“That’s where the rest of our game has to be clean and the critical moment, let’s not hide, was the tap-down yellow card.
“We were getting Aaron Wainwright back within seconds and were getting back to 15 versus 15 at 7-6. Then for an unknown reason we decided to collapse.
“I can’t believe the scoreline because I am very depressed after a 26-13 defeat when we could have had Sean Lonsdale, Sio Tomkinson over the line, but it wasn’t a great performance from us.”
Sometimes you have to take your medicine and say ‘we are not in the game there, because there is a clearly dominant team, let’s be cleaner everywhere else’...
