Captain Angus O’Brien has urged Dragons to use the emotion of the narrow defeat to Leinster to fuel performances as attention turns to the club’s European bid.
The Men of Gwent were edged out 24-10 by champions Leinster in a dramatic home clash that saw Filo Tiatia’s team threaten to level the scores late on roared on by a partisan home crowd.
Dragons now prepare to face Perpignan this Sunday (kick-off 1pm) in the EPCR Challenge Cup and O’Brien admits the hurt of the loss to Leinster needs to be used positively to get a response in France.
“We thought we had an opportunity to get back level with a few minutes to go,” he admitted. “But we can’t just focus on that and put it down on one call, as frustrated as we might be.
“I’m just proud of the fight and character we showed. We dug deep to stick with a good Leinster team.
“We’re ultimately feeling frustration and disappointment that we haven’t come away without a victory, but we need to build on it and take this into Europe.
“We put Leinster under a lot of pressure in that first half and probably would have liked to get a few more points when they were under the pump.
“We spoke about the game after in the huddle and said we’ve got to use the emotions and let it fuel us,” he added.
“We’ve got to turn these narrow losses into wins. We’re all working extremely hard, and we have a big opportunity in this block of games to get some results.
“All we can do is work harder - on and off the field. To be fair to boys, there is no shortage of effort, and now we learn fast and move forward.”
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We spoke about the game after in the huddle and said we’ve got to use the emotions and let it fuel us...
