Head Coach Filo Tiatia insisted there were positives to take as a youthful and injury-hit Dragons lost 45-20 to reigning champions, Glasgow Warriors, in the BKT United Rugby Championship on home soil.
Hooker James Benjamin and back row Shane Lewis-Hughes grabbed tries in the penultimate home of the season at Rodney Parade.
Play-off chasing Warriors pulled away in the second half to maximum points.
But Tiatia was keen to focus on the performance of many young players and the way his side – deprived of 16 players due to injury and international call-ups – had battled away in the first half.
“The first half we showed a lot of positive signs and a lot of good moments and sets. The second it was challenging with the fatigue, and we made some critical errors,” said Tiatia.
“The score is hard, but there are a lot more positives than negatives.
“We have a lot of young players playing at this level and, I’m not being disrespectful, but it’s where we are at with the player base. We have a lot of players who are unavailable, it is a high number.
“There are moments in the game I was proud of. The effort when there were line breaks, the fight to get back. Unfortunately, we found ourselves in our 22 and tried to play from there.
“There is growth. Players who got opportunities today, like Huw Anderson, had some good moments. But there is still learning around when to offload and make sure it goes to hand.
“I thought our defensive efforts in the first half were pretty good, but it needs to be consistent so we can apply pressure on good teams like Glasgow,” he added.
“They won the competition last year and did it in Pretoria. We knew who were playing against and they are a good team.
“We had moments in the first half when we missed opportunities and were not clinical enough. But you can argue that they could have scored more.
“We need to learn a bit faster, coaches as well, to make sure our plans are clear.”
Dragons next face a trip to tackle Zebre in Parma and Tiatia acknowledged the size of the challenge in Italy on Friday, February 28.
“Zebre had a good win against Edinburgh, and they are a good side,” he stated.
“They have gone back-to-back with wins over Ulster and Edinburgh, two good sides.
“We have just under two weeks in preparation and we will have a good look at then, but they are a side heading in the right direction.”
I thought our defensive efforts in the first half were pretty good, but it needs to be consistent so we can apply pressure on good teams like Glasgow...
