Euro exploits can be springboard to success for Dragons

Simon Thomas 

The Dragons’ European heroics can serve as “a springboard to significant change” for the future.

That’s the verdict of their former head coach Bernard Jackman who has been glowing in his praise for the Gwent outfit’s Challenge Cup campaign.

That adventure came to an end on Sunday when they pushed Montpellier all the way in the semi-final out in France before ultimately going down to a 18-12 defeat.

“It was an amazing performance, such resilience, such fight,” said ex-Ireland hooker Jackman, who was in charge at Rodney Parade for 18 months up until the end of 2018.

“They can come out of that with their head up and their chest out. There was no lack of effort and, when they had quality ball, they asked lots of questions of Montpellier.

“A performance like that, a cup run like they have had can be a springboard to significant change in terms of league position, in terms of optimism and in terms of building a project.”

It’s a theme echoed by co-captain Angus O’Brien as he reflects on what the Dragons can take out of their heartbreaking European exit.

“It was an unbelievable effort from the boys,” said the full-back.

“Ultimately, we are gutted we didn’t quite get the result. But to go out there and have opportunities to win the game is testament to where we’ve come as a group this season.

“We’ve got to use that as fuel now to really kick on from here.

“The growth in the group has been massive this year and the European competition has really given us an opportunity to build momentum towards the back end of the season.

“We want more days like that. We don’t want to wait another ten years. We’ve shown we can compete with these top European clubs.”

Strong finish

In the short term, the focus switches to the final two games of their BKT URC campaign against Edinburgh (home) and the Scarlets (away).

“It’s massively important to finish the season strongly,” said O’Brien.

“There is an opportunity to try and get more points and climb the league table.”

Commenting on the Dragons supporters, he said: “They have been amazing all year and to see so many of them come over to Montpellier was huge. It means so much to us as a squad of players and staff to have that backing.

“We could hear them the whole 80 minutes and we are just gutted we didn’t give them one more away trip to the final in Bilbao.

“We appreciate all the support we’ve had all season and now we are looking forward to seeing everyone back at Rodney Parade on Saturday.”

Adding his thoughts on the semi-final, fellow co-captain Ben Carter said: “We showed a lot of fight and put ourselves in a position to win that game, so we were really disappointed with how it ended.

“We can be proud of the work-rate, physicality, effort, but we made too many mistakes. That’s what’s really frustrating. We are doing a lot of the hard work and then just letting things slip away.”

‘Disappointment’

Head coach Filo Tiatia concurred, saying: “There was a lot of disappointment with the outcome. It was a could have, should have sort of game. We left a lot of points out on the field.”

But, looking ahead, the former All Black insists there is still much to aim for over the next couple of weeks.

“We’ve got our last home game and a lot of milestones to celebrate,” he said, turning to Saturday’s Rodney Parade meeting with Edinburgh.

“We’ve got some people that won’t be here next season, so we want to put a show on.

“We’ve got the Scarlets away after that and that will be our season. We want to finish strong for the group and for our fans as well, so it’s important for us.”

On that subject, Dragons director David Buttress is already looking forward to next season with real enthusiasm on the back of the strides the team has taken this term.

“I am so proud of all the players, coaches and the incredible support. We are a lucky club,” he said.

“Let’s build this into the rugby club Gwent deserves and let’s be greedy and do it all again next year!”

Adding his thoughts on the Montpellier match, which featured two tries from centre Aneurin Owen, chief executive Rhys Blumberg said: “The boys gave it everything and the support was unreal, so thank you to everyone who travelled over to support the team.”