Dragons’ brilliant run to the EPCR Challenge Cup semi-finals ultimately ended in disappointment as they lost narrowly 18-12 to Montpellier in France.
A battling display including a brace for centre Aneurin Owen wasn’t quite enough for Dragons who were left to rue chances missed during the game.
Dragons have shown lots of fight on their European run and Sunday was no different with a couple of errors the difference in the end.
“I think we can be proud of the work rate, physicality, effort all those sorts of things that haven’t been lacking either today or in the fixtures leading up to today’s game,” said Dragons co-captain Ben Carter.
“That’s what’s really frustrating is that we did the hard work just let it get away.
“We’re all really disappointed, too many mistakes really. We showed a lot of fight, put ourselves in a position to win that game so disappointed with how it ended.”
Dragons nearly scored inside the first minute but a pass from David Richards was just out of Thomas Young’s grasp.
They created other chances, but a last-minute penalty meant that Montpellier lead 13-5 at the interval.
A second try for the French side inside the final quarter looked to have ended the Men of Gwent’s hopes however Owen’s second and a tiring Montpellier pack meant the game was close right until the death.
In the end it was Montpellier who took the win and Young echoed his captains frustrations at the loss.
“Small mistakes let us down there,” said Young.
“We can be proud of the effort but we’re disappointed today.
“We’re a group which works hard, today was unfortunate but as a squad we have to look at what we can do better.
“We’ve got two games left in the league so hopefully we can win them.”
Dragons host Edinburgh on Saturday night in what will be a memorable occasion with some players set to leave the club at the end of the season before travelling West to face Scarlets on the final day of the season.
With Dragons currently sitting 14th, with Edinburgh 12th and Scarlets 15th there is a chance for the Men of Gwent to climb up the table to as high as 11th if other results go their way.
