Dragons RFC head coach Filo Tiatia says his side need to improve their discipline after falling to defeat against Scarlets at the Principality Stadium.
Dragons led 23-21 heading into the final 10 minutes but ultimately lost 23-31 during a tight encounter at JDX.
A brace for Jared Rosser and another score from fellow wing Ashton Hewitt had given Dragons the lead, however Ioan Lloyd kicked a penalty in the final minute to deny the Men of Gwent a losing bonus point.
“I felt for the group, but it’s hard to win games when you're giving so many penalties away in the game,” said Tiatia.
“Two yellow cards meant we had to fight hard with 14 players on the field for 20 minutes.
“We gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game but we've just got to be more clinical around some of the basics.
“The penalty count was too high, I think first half it was eight-five and trying to stay in games, you want to be under ten and we were eight in the first half.
“We’ve got to improve around some of the little things that we're not doing well and we need to work better with the referee.”
Dragons welcomed back co-captains Angus O’Brien and Ben Carter for the game with the fly-halves boot helping Dragons with territorial gain plus he supplied a sumptuous pass for Rosser’s first score.
“There’re signs of improvement around staying in moments, particularly great having Angus O’Brien, Scotty Williams and Ben Carter on the field with their experience,” said Tiatia.
“It’s an opportunity to keep improving and learning, we’ve just got to learn a little bit faster, around parts of the game.
“It's always great to see backs scoring tries and good to see some of the players unleash themselves today and Jared had some really good moments, some that we can keep improving on as well.
“Scott Williams had some really good moments in the game today.
“He knows his old teammates pretty well, made some good reads defensively and punched some holes and got us some game line.”
Dragons scored twice early in the second half through Hewitt and then Rosser to extend their 8-7 half-time lead to 20 points to seven and Tiatia feels his side need to learn to harness that momentum better in the future.
“Scarlets are a well-coached team with Dwayne Peel and his coaches and they’ve got quality players, international players throughout the 15 and 23,” said Tiatia.
“We’ve got to be at our best every time and it’s fine margins.
“It's really momentum, when we have momentum, how do we keep the foot on the throttle and don't let it off.
“Second half we score two tries, applied pressure and then we let them back in the game.
“We’ve just got to be better there and another opportunity to prepare next week.”
There’re signs of improvement around staying in moments, particularly great having Angus O’Brien, Scotty Williams and Ben Carter on the field with their experience...
