HEAD coach Kingsley Jones says Newport Gwent Dragons need to learn how to pace themselves as they prepare to use a more expansive approach this season.

The Dragons will head into their Guinness Pro12 opener at Ulster on Friday after a 32-16 loss to Aviva Premiership runners-up Exeter at Rodney Parade.

The scoreline doesn’t tell the whole story as Jones’ side caused the Chiefs some problems, particularly in the first half when the scores were locked at 13-13.

“We’ve got to look at how we control the tempo. If we expect the players to play with that intent then it’s going to be sapping,” said the head coach.

“There was good carry on from the Cardiff Blues game and we showed our (attacking) intentions, I would say we got a bit tired on 50 minutes, then we started slowing things down and kicking a bit, slipping back into the old Dragons (of last season).

“I watched Exeter’s game against Ulster the week before and I was quite nervous! But you have to test yourself against the best teams and they are one of the best in Europe.

“For 40 minutes it was very pleasing and scratch off the interception try (when the score was 20-16) and you’d have to say we did well in terms of our performance.

“Defensively we were good, our breakdown was good and we will take confidence from that and have a crack at Ulster.

The Dragons expect to have lock Rynard Landman and prop Brok Harris available at Ravenhill after they sat out the Chiefs game with niggles while Lewis Evans will be available in the back row, although Jones was impressed by the triumvirate of Ollie Griffiths, Nic Cudd and Ed Jackson.

“Our back row was outstanding. The three of them together isn’t the biggest back row but it’s possibly the fasted and they got through a hell of a lot of work,” he said.

“For 50 minutes (fly-half) Nick Macleod was excellent, (scrum-half) Sarel Pretorius is undefendable when we get going and (centre) Sam Beard was good on his debut.

“You have to see the positives and it bodes well. Pre-season is over and marks out of 10? Probably 7 or 8.”

Ulster warmed up for the Dragons with a 29-19 win against Northampton with All Black Charles Piutau firing a warning with one try and two assists.