DRAGONS boss Dai Flanagan slammed his players for losing control in their European Challenge Cup hammering at Glasgow – but believes there is no point in giving them another rocket.
The Rodney Parade club conceded 11 tries as the Warriors cruised into the quarter-finals to host the Lions thanks to a 73-33 win.
The Dragons, who had prop Aki Seiuli sent off for a high shot in the first half, scored five tries themselves – through full-back Jordan Williams, wing Rio Dyer, centre Jared Rosser and hooker Elliot Dee (2) – but it was a chastening evening at Scotstoun Stadium.
Flanagan’s men headed to Glasgow after an awful performance in a 37-18 United Rugby Championship derby loss to the Ospreys but the head coach felt the hair-dryer treatment would be counterproductive.
“What does a rocket achieve? We had a rocket during the week because the Ospreys performance definitely wasn’t good enough,” he said.
“There were elements at Glasgow that were better but we have a tough game up next in Ulster.
“Things don’t get any easier and good teams are peaking at the end of the season while we are limping, and that is tough to take.”
The Dragons were on the back foot throughout but managed to respond to Glasgow tries until a burst in the second half that had Flanagan fuming.
“It’s a difficult one for me as a young coach to see that. We’ve got to pull ourselves together, and stick together,” he said.
“We totally lost control for a period when they scored 21 points in three minutes and that racks up the score.
“We lack the ability to understand what to do to keep a score down and stay in a game – Glasgow are a fantastic team and we always knew it would be a big challenge coming up here.
“We had a plan with ball in hand and we executed that well, but that’s not good enough and defensively we fell off too many tackles.”
The Dragons were forced into an early change when Steff Hughes went off with a concussion, leaving them down to their last specialist centre Max Clark.
Rosser moved from the wing but came off himself in the closing stages with scrum-half Rhodri Williams having to cover at 13.
The Dragons have a long list of absentees that meant full-back Ioan Davies was pulled from Newport RFC’s team late on Thursday to feature for the first time this season.
“It has been challenging but I don’t want to talk about players that are not here. That’s life, that’s the squad that we’ve got and we have to get on with it,” said Flanagan.
“There were players on that field who are good enough. We are in this together and have to fight through it together.”
Seiuli became the third Dragons player to be sent off in the last three games after the dismissals of lock Matthew Screech against Connacht and centre Sio Tomkinson against the Ospreys.
The former Glasgow prop caught George Horne in the head when counter-rucking and Flanagan had no complaints.
“It was a poor decision by Aki to put himself in that position. A referee has to protect players and those are the rules,” said the head coach.
“But I was disappointed because there was a clear swinging arm on Steff Hughes in the first play of the match that never got picked up.
“We lost him for the match and I am sure if it was the other way around I would get punished.”
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