Director of Dragons Rugby Dean Ryan was left frustrated that his side couldn’t claim victory on Sunday afternoon after a narow 7-6 loss to Leinster at Rodney Parade.
Dragons welcomed the defending champions to Newport in round two of the United Rugby Championship, hoping to cause an upset over their Irish rivals.
A solo try from number eight Max Deegan and a Ross Byrne conversion was enough for the away side to claim victory despite two second half penalties from Dragons fly half Sam Davies.
Boss Ryan admits he’s disappointed his side couldn’t quite get over the line and despite being frustrated insists it shows how far Dragons have come.
“We are more disappointed [than proud] now, we are moving out of the phase where trying to keep the score down against Leinster is seen as a positive” said Ryan.
“We are frustrated that we didn’t play very well in the first half and that was compounded by having people in the bin.
“When we did solve some of our platform problems we looked quite dangerous and the frustration was that we probably could have gone on to win the game.”
He continued “You never quite get clear-cut chances against Leinster so have to keep trying to build pressure.
“Sometimes our naivety was that we thought there should have been something there, but when you play a side that good there isn’t anything there, you just have to keep building.
“The momentum was with us at the end and we probably made some poor decisions to hand it back to them.”
A positive for the home side was strong defence throughout the contest, matching the physicality imposed by Leinster and containing the Irish side to just seven points.
Ryan admits he’s happy with the progress of the Dragons defence, especially following his side going down to 13 men in the first half, following yellow cards to both Lewis Jones and Josh Lewis.
“Our defence is something that is going really well,” said Ryan. “Talking to some of the lads, Leinster is the team that has stressed us the most in the past in terms of the pace and the accuracy that they can play at.
“There was the period when we went down to 13 men that was a bit hairy and we were lucky they made some errors in that window, because you’d expect them to score, but it wasn’t easy to handle in the first half and the rain probably got us through it without conceding.”
“But the guys didn’t feel stressed or out of control, which is the feeling Leinster can give you, so that was pleasing today."
