Head Coach Filo Tiatia spoke of his pride in the effort shown by his Dragons in defeat to Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria.
The Men of Gwent ended the season with a 55-15 defeat at altitude at Loftus Versfeld Stadium, but showed plenty of spirit and heart while landing blows with Huw Anderson, Rhodri Williams and Lewis Morgan all scoring.
Dragons almost snatched a try bonus late on and Tiatia looked to focus on both the effort put in and the learning for next season and beyond.
He said: “It was a tough game. We played against a team that is near the top of the ladder and after this game very close to number one.
“We came here under no illusion how tough this challenge would be, but I was proud with the effort of the players, particularly second half.
“I thought we got a little bit of composure around areas we wanted to focus on, we bought some momentum and scored some tries.
“The transitional work defensively is still an area we need to keep improving on, but overall, I can’t fault the effort.
“It was a performance of two halves in many ways,” he added. “We’re a very young group still with lots of learnings around where we are at.
“There are some opportunities for physical development for our youngers guys, but also an opportunity for our staff to keep looking at some of our processes for the players.
“We had two games with Stormers and the Bulls and we had a couple of areas we wanted to focus on. We hit the majority of the KPIs there.”
The game was an emotional one for many Dragons who will now leave the club, with a full confirmed departures list due to be announced next week.
And on the other of the spectrum, the game saw two debuts as prop Jamie Morgan and hooker Lewis Morgan both featured on permit from SRC clubs.
“It’s very emotional for several players, you could see how much it meant after the game,” said Tiatia.
“I feel for the guys who are losing team-mates. They’ve spent lots of time together, shared experiences. I was part of that journey once and it is challenging.
“The two guys that came on at short notice have been awesome,” he added.
“Jamie (Hughes) came on first, cap 355, and he was outstanding. He broke a bone in his hand, and he carried on. Hopefully it’s not too bad.
“Lewis (Morgan) came on for the last five or six minutes, cap 356, and scored a try on debut.
“I was proud of both of them and really grateful they were available to help us out.”
Dragons will now jet back to Wales before an extensive review of the season and Tiatia is keen for everyone to take learnings from the campaign as the club looks to build for the future.
“As players they can look at preparation, how they prepare. Everyone is different, so it’s learning styles from different players,” he concluded.
“A lot of players are kinaesthetic learners. They don’t learn by just listening.
“Also, mentality and staying in the scrap. We’ve talked to the coaches from the Bulls and had some nice feedback around staying in the fight.
“We’ve just got to do it for longer periods. It’s an area to keep improving on.
“As staff, we’ve learned patience and understanding people. There is a lot we can all learn from this season.
“The programme we need to review, be honest about where we are at as staff. How we run the programme moving into next season.
“We don’t want the same injury rates we’ve had. We need to make sure our best players and our development players are available for selection.”
We came here under no illusion how tough this challenge would be, but I was proud with the effort of the players, particularly second half...
