Dragons chairman David Buttress has defiantly insisted things are improving at Rodney Parade, despite the evidence of 13 successive Guinness Pro14 games without a win.
The Dragons have not recorded a victory since September, their latest failure coming on Friday night and a 29-17 home defeat to the Cheetahs.
Despite being taken over the Welsh Rugby Union, a new head coach in Bernard Jackman, a new chairman in Buttress, new recruits and a new playing surface, the one thing that has not altered in Newport is repeated failure on the field.
Friday night’s defeat means the region are actually in danger of completing their worst ever season. With just three games to go – none of them at Rodney Parade – they have won only twice in the league all season and look likely to finish short of their lowest tally of four wins in a campaign.
But, writing in the Dragons match programme before Friday’s game, Buttress vowed that results would improve for long-suffering fans who must now wait five months before their next home fixture.
Buttress said: “Next year will soon be upon us. We’ve started the Dragons turnaround, even if the results on the field so far are yet to show it, but with a number of new exciting players arriving and our promising youngsters a year wiser, supporters should expect to see results improving.
“We take strength from your support and we all have a passion to move higher up the table.
“Winning is a habit, with a few wins we can build momentum and grow confidence. In addition to the signings and contract renewals for players we’ve already announced, we are strengthening the club’s leadership off the field and I expect a new Dragons managing director to be in place before pre-season resumes.”
The Dragons’ remaining matches are in Italy against Treviso and Zebre and then against the Scarlets during Judgement Day at the Principality Stadium.
The South African side triumphed thanks to tries by wing Sibahle Maxwane (2), fly-half Fred Zeilinga and full-back Clayton Blommetjies.
Victory extended their advantage over fourth-placed Cardiff Blues to 10 points in Conference A and closed the gap to second-placed Munster to two.
The Dragons were unable to add to their meagre total of two league wins despite scores by wing Ashton Hewitt and hooker Elliot Dee.
Captain Cory Hill – playing his first match back for the Dragons after the Six Nations did not attempt to hide his frustration.
“We had chances in the first half but we weren’t clinical enough,” said Hill. “We said about keeping it tight and defending well in the second half but we didn’t do that and we shipped some sloppy points.
“The conditions are the same for both sides so I’m not going to complain about that, we just couldn’t keep the ball in their 22′
“You need more than just effort to win professional games and we need to look at ourselves and tighten up in defence to not give those sloppy tries away and be more clinical when we have the chance.
We go back to training next week to prepare for our trip to Italy, so we need to have a good two weeks’ preparation and then hopefully get a good away win in Italy.”
