Head Coach Dai Flanagan hailed the character and calmness of his Dragons as they stunned Ospreys with a sensational late win at a rocking Rodney Parade.
The Men of Gwent won on the opening day of the season for the first time in a decade after a remarkable comeback.
Trailing by eight points with under ten minutes to go, they cut the lead through the boot of Lloyd Evans before a sustained three-minute attack deep into injury time saw Luke Yendle power over to spark elation.
“We had Calzaghe in over the summer and we themed this week around trying to take the Ospreys to round 12. We won’t be doing that again, we want to go three or six rounds because it’s not good for the heart," said Flanagan.
“I am so proud of them, there was calmness out there when we had that moment. A lot of that has happened to us and not for us but there was confidence and clarity.
“We can be much better for sure, but that will be good for us.
“We were ill disciplined for 25 minutes of the second half and rightly so we had a yellow card. It was pleasing that we were much better disciplined down to 14.”
“That has happened to us a lot of times since I have been here for whatever reason,” added Flanagan. “We haven’t had one of them and it’s nice for the shoe to be on the other foot.
“We will learn from it because we don’t want to be in that position but the growth of the group was the clarity.
“We are a physical bunch, the feedback from Bristol and Bath was that we can hit so it’s about repeating that and staying disciplined.
“We need to be more accurate – there were too many little knock-ons – but when we get it right like that first try we are a good team.”
Dragons next face Leinster at the Aviva Stadium next Friday and Flanagan wants his team to take confidence from the opening day and enjoy the occasion in Dublin.
“We take learnings from this win,” he stated. “We now have a six-day turnround until we go to Leinster at the Aviva Stadium with all their internationals potentially back. What an opportunity.
“We can’t wait, and it is so exciting to play there. But the big message this week is looking after ourselves and controlling what we need to control.”
I am so proud of them... A lot of the feedback of the players was the calmness we had in that moment...
