THE Dragons triumphed 33-17 against Bordeaux-Begles but results elsewhere meant they bowed out of Europe. Here are five things from the last round of the Challenge Cup group stages.

1: Dragons do their bit

The first part of the scenario was simple – win with a bonus and deny Bordeaux anything – yet that was far from easy.

The French side were up for it and headed to Wales with a strongish side and buoyed by a win at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

It looked like the Dragons were doomed when they wasted a glut of chances in the first half but they held their nerve to score four after the break.

That is a fine achievement given that they had previously recorded just two five-point hauls this season against Southern Kings and Enisei-STM.

They played some great rugby to give themselves a shot, but sadly it wasn’t enough.

2: December was costly

Going into the game the fear was that the Dragons would fall just short and so it proved.

Another point or two would have made all the difference so it was the failure to get a bonus in victory against Enisei and failure to beat Newcastle when they should have in December.

That left them needing to get something from Bordeaux, when they could and perhaps should have.

3: Rare lineout wobbles

Back to yesterday’s game, it was the driving lineout that left the Dragons needing to dig deep in the second half.

It has been such a weapon this season but pretty much everything went wrong in the first half with overthrows, misplaced passes off the top, steals and inaccuracies.

In the end it didn’t cost them but hopefully it was just a bad day at the office.

4: Strong scrums

The lineout struggled but the scrum was superb with Lloyd Fairbrother adding to his growing reputation.

The Cornishman has been superb this season in the absence of Leon Brown and Brok Harris when one feared for his future at the start of the campaign.

Fairbrother was the cornerstone of a scrum that had the edge against a pretty hefty Bordeaux pack.

The tighthead is just concerned with Dragons but he must be climbing the Wales pecking order. Worse options have certainly got a shot on the Test stage in recent years.

5: Back row dilemma

The Dragons could go from being down to the bare bones to being blessed with options when Lewis Evans, Ollie Griffiths and Harrison Keddie return soon.

James Benjamin has been immense this season but arguably he has been outshone by Aaron Wainwright, who was brilliant against versus Bordeaux.

The workaholic flanker provided the champagne moment of the game when in the closing stages he showed remarkable pace to break out from the 22 to the Frenchmen’s half, an indication of the size of his engine.

James Sheekey and Robson Blake performed strongly alongside him and will get more chances to catch Bernard Jackman’s eye in the Anglo-Welsh Cup.