LYN Jones admitted that Newport Gwent Dragons failed to cope with the big-match pressure of their European Challenge Cup semi-final against Edinburgh.

The Rodney Parade region were drubbed 45-16 at Murrayfield, ending dreams of a first ever final in their history in brutal fashion.

The Dragons have played some sterling rugby in Europe this season, beating Stade Francais and Newcastle with bonus points to top their group and edging out Cardiff Blues.

However, Jones believes that the absence of their seasoned campaigners, especially in the tight five, to go along with their exciting young talent was costly.

“If you had told me at the start of the season that we would perform in the semi-final of this competition then I would have bitten your hand off,” said Jones.

“But we needed experienced players to be in the mix – Rynard Landman, Andrew Coombs, Boris Stankovich, Lee Byrne, Pat Leach.

“Big players deal with pressure and deliver with accuracy time and time again. We didn’t do that.

“We came back to 21-16 but there was just one, two, three, four errors and Edinburgh were back in our 22. You just can’t do that.

“But that’s life and we know exactly where we are. We are pleased with the competition in its entirety but saddened that we didn’t show against Edinburgh what we can do.”

The Dragons were second best throughout but scented another comeback win when Brok Harris barged over to make it 21-16 in the opening exchanges of the second half.

However, that try was the only bright moment of a night to forget in the Scottish capital with Edinburgh crossing for five tries.

“It didn’t start well and gradually got worse. We were well beaten,” said Jones.

“We lost the kicking game dreadfully and we compounded errors. We gave away field position and found ourselves defending lineouts and scrums. We were outplayed in every facet.

“It’s disappointing but that’s the way it goes. Conceding 40 points is vastly disappointing but we are not chucking the bathwater out just yet because there is lots good in our game but things that have worked very successfully weren’t good enough.

“Edinburgh were accurate, put pressure on us and we failed to deal with that, while we weren’t clinical with the opportunities that we did have.”