HEAD coach Bernard Jackman lamented the Dragons’ failure to earn the backing of the Eugene Cross Park faithful with a meek start in defeat to Edinburgh.

The region moved a first Guinness PRO14 game away from Rodney Parade out of choice but endured yet more league misery with a 25-12 loss to Edinburgh.

The Scots bossed matters from the off and earned a deserved bonus-point win with two tries either side of a Rynard Landman brace that briefly gave the Dragons hope at 15-12 in the second half.

A crowd of 4,052 was announced for the fixture but the atmosphere was subdued in freezing conditions, partly due to the hosts’ sloppy start.

“The crowd were good, we just didn’t give them enough,” said Jackman. “We were dominated in the first half and on a cold night we needed to get them going with our actions on the pitch.

“If we had played really well and lost, that would be fine but the reality is that we didn’t fire and that’s frustrating because we wanted to do something better than that.”

The Dragons were humbled at Ebbw Vale and Jackman and his management team conducted a lengthy debrief in the Eugene Cross Park weights room underneath the main stand.

“We were very disappointed so were looking to make a plan because we missed an opportunity,” said the head coach.

“We didn’t do ourselves justice and that’s a killer, there were too many individual errors and not enough urgency. We were passive and let Edinburgh control the game, which they did really well.

“We struggled with their physicality, our lineout didn’t function, our lineout defence was poor, we lost a lot of ball in contact. We didn’t have one area of the game that we dominated and we got what we deserved.

“That’s frustrating and we made a step back – we didn’t deserve to win the game and that’s a big opportunity lost.”

The Dragons now turn their attention to trying to avoid becoming the winless Southern Kings’ first scalp since joining the PRO14.

They will travel to Port Elizabeth with a 25-man squad and are hopeful of wing Ashton Hewitt returning. Flanker Aaron Wainwright will be monitored after being forced off in the first half in Ebbw Vale.