By David Williams
Dean Ryan believes the Dragons missed a trick even though they were well beaten, 35-5 by Leinster in Dublin in their Guinness PRO14 opener on Friday night.
Coaching director Ryan watched his team go 21-0 down by the break having been reduced to 14 men with Leinster scoring through Garry Ringrose, Jordan Larmour and James Lowe.
After the break Lowe added his second and Ryan Baird completed Leinster’s scoring before Ashton Hewitt grabbed a deserved away try.
“I don’t think I’ve come here very often and been disappointed we missed an opportunity,” said Ryan.
“We had four or five line-outs on the five-metre line and came away with nothing which is credit to Leinster, but that’s exactly where we need to be better.
“If you stay in a really physical game and make it difficult for Leinster to take their chances, you have to take your own. That’s the lesson that will come out of today.
“There will be lots of positive messages, but we have to be critical of ourselves. We’ve been pretty open and honest about it in the changing room.
“I love their effort and the fact they threw everything physically into the game as that was right out of our comfort zone,” he added. “There is no doubting that.
“I’m always proud of them and I don’t set any targets about where they should be. Of course, we want to be better and if we’re going to do that the players have to solve some things themselves.”
Jamie Roberts was a forceful presence on his Pro 14 debut for the Dragons but he undermined his work when he was binned for a high tackle on Tommy O’Brien.
Tough night for the @dragonsrugby but this was a great finish by @ashton_hewitt 💪🏾 🏉 @WorldinMotion_ @WiMRugby pic.twitter.com/gLJmEkd0B0
— Ian Bird (@ian_WIM) October 2, 2020
Leinster – who are looking for their fourth successive Pro14 title – don’t need favours like that and they duly powered to their 20th successive victory in the competition.
Ryan added: “I think it was exactly what we were expecting. It was a level up in terms of pace, especially after the yellow card.
“There were some things we’ll need to look at and the physicality was enormous, but I thought we got to grips with things in the second half.
“We’ll come away from this disappointed with ourselves. If we want to test ourselves at this level we have to be better.”
