Director of Dragons Rugby Dean Ryan admitted his side had been blown away at the contact area and that breakdown struggles had been the main reason for defeat by Edinburgh.
On a freezing cold night at Rodney Parade, the Scottish side were fully deserving of a bonus-point win as they played some enterprising attacking rugby.
Dragons stayed in the contest against all the odds and scored tries through Sam Davies and Jonah Holmes, but Edinburgh eventually pulled clear to win 30-14.
Mike Blair’s side got off to a fast start and their backs ran riot, helped by quick ball at the breakdown as the Dragons back-row struggled to slow their opponents down.
Ryan wasn’t helped by losing flanker Taine Basham – a breakout star for Wales this autumn – after just four minutes following his failure of a head injury assessment.
“The first half was as clear as anything – we couldn’t control their speed of ball,” said Ryan.
“We couldn’t get it under control and credit to them. We didn’t have much of a solution in the whole game. It put us out of a rhythm in that first 20 to 25 minutes and we couldn’t get a foothold.
“It was the tempo they played with, but also the pressure around the breakdown and we couldn’t get any. When we were in possession in the second half, they could get a lot.
“We can’t look anywhere else other than at that area. We need to challenge ourselves to be better in that area, but credit to them. They played at pace and had accuracy with it.”
Ryan continued: “To lose the amount of ground and tries that were scored playing into the wind wasn’t acceptable. We have to find solutions in a game that is going against us.”
Edinburgh dominated the first 20 minutes. Their Argentina stars Emiliano Boffelli and Ramiro Moyano both scored in that time as Dragons didn’t help themselves with basic errors.
But out of nowhere, Ryan’s men did hit back through Davies and Holmes with Davies kicking both conversions.

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Conditions played a big part in the game, but Edinburgh negated the influence of the wind by running with ball in hand and retaining possession with quick ruck speed.
Had Basham stayed on the pitch, it might have been a different story.
Moyano grabbed his second for Edinburgh before the break and after the clock had gone red in the second half, Damien Hoyland gave Blair’s visitors a bonus-point win.
Ryan also had bad news on Dragons centre Jack Dixon.
“A lot of it is easy (to fix), but we’ve got to be better. Taine failed a HIA after a head collision in a ruck,” he said.
“With Jack, I believe his elbow has dislocated and we’ll know more in the next 24 hours. We put too much pressure on ourselves and they shouldn’t get 12 early points as easy as that into a strong wind.
“We gave some penalties away as well and it was always going to be difficult to win in the second half.”
Dragons captain Harrison Keddie said: “It was a slow start and we couldn’t get into the flow of the game in the second half to give ourselves the best chance of trying to get back into it.
“It was difficult at times with the wind, but Edinburgh had to deal with it as well. We weren’t accurate enough at the breakdown in the second half to get our attacking shape going.
“It’s frustrating. We put a lot of effort in to get multiple phases, but then our attack broke down over little errors. It’s disappointing to lose at home after the break.
“We have some dangerous back three players when we give them the ball in space, so that’s something we’ll have to take a look at. “