Senior Coach Dale MacLeod wants Dragons ‘to keep believing and keep going’ as they look to adopt a new way of playing this season.
The Men of Gwent are back in BKT United Rugby Championship action this Saturday as they travel west to face Ospreys in the first game at a new-look St Helen’s in Swansea (kick-off 7pm).
MacLeod believes there are plenty of positives to take from the opening three rounds of league action – that has harvested nine points and a win, draw and defeat.
Dragons now face Ospreys for the second time in just over two weeks as they look to avenge a narrow loss at Rodney Parade earlier this month.
And MacLeod wants the squad to keep expressing themselves as they look to build on an encouraging start.
“If you'd said after three rounds you'll be in the top eight, we would have taken that,” he stated. “When you look at our league games, in all three we have put ourselves in a position to win them.
“In one, we had a kick at the post, and a try disallowed that we probably felt was a try. And then the other week (against Ospreys), we created a lot of good opportunities.
“We can't lose sight of the fact that we're doing some good stuff. We're creating some good opportunities. We’ve just got to keep believing and keep going.
“We're trying to play a different brand of footy, which is exciting, and the boys are expressing themselves,” he added.
“We want to be dangerous from anywhere on the field and we're starting to see and do that.
“Matt (O’Brien) has done a great job around that with the support of Filo (Tiatia) around how we want to shift that.
“I think that we just got to keep believing and keep going there, and you know we'll live and die by the sword.
“We're going to back ourselves, and we weren't far off the other day.
“A couple of penalties put us under the pump and allowed Ospreys, who are a good side, into your 22, and as we've found, it's very hard to stop teams if they can kick to the corner and get a maul.
“We are frustrated, but we'll keep believing, and we'll get to where we need to get to.”
I think that we just got to keep believing and keep going there, and you know we'll live and die by the sword...
