BOSS Bernard Jackman said his Dragons players failed to cope with the pressure of their Guinness PRO14 opener with Benetton – but shouldered the blame for the error-strewn horror show.

The Italians took the spoils 21-17 at Rodney Parade after scoring three tries in between efforts by debutants Dafydd Howells and Rhodri Williams.

The Dragons’ error count was huge and the result was made all the more deflating by the summer of change that saw 14 new players arrive, providing hope of a stronger campaign.

After winning just two games in 2017/18, Jackman suggested the desire to prove a point played a part in the nightmare display.

“It was really poor and I take responsibility for it,” said the head coach. “Maybe we were a little bit undercooked and maybe we were a little bit overanxious.

“The boys were so passionate about trying to get off to a good start and to get a win to kick-start us. Sometimes you can actually want it too much and snatch at things.

“If you look at some of the errors we made, handling errors for example, it was completely uncharacteristic.

“We just gave Benetton so many chances to get set piece, and their set piece is very good.

“It was very frustrating but we have got to make sure we get better week by week and that on Monday we come in with a really good attitude to fix it.

“The good thing is that there is experience there [in the squad] and the boys know that these things happen in rugby, no matter how much you want to win.

“It doesn’t always come as quickly as you want and we will fix it.

"There wasn’t a huge amount of positives apart from our fight at the end, showing spirit to get a try that gave us a chance of stealing the game.

“Apart from our courage at the end I don’t think it’s a game that we will take a huge amount from, although we learn from the errors and the way that we didn’t handle certain situations.”

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The Dragons now face another huge home game with Southern Kings, last season's worst team in the PRO14, heading to Newport on Saturday (kick-off 3pm).

“A win would settle us down,” said Jackman. “We need to get a win by hook or by crook.

“Benetton didn’t do a huge amount but they have got confidence of winning away from home and at home, they looked much more composed while we were very frantic.

“Get a win and everything will settle down and we will start to see our players, with the talent that they have, expressing themselves without fear.

“I take the responsibility for that, that we maybe build this game up too much and didn’t deal with the pressure as well as we needed to.”

The Dragons will put Lions back row forward Ross Moriarty straight into the squad following his suspension for a red card on Wales duty in the summer.

“He is our marquee signing and will come into the team for sure. Ollie Griffiths, Aaron Wainwright and Lewis Evans were good, we’ve got a lot of competition in the back row but Ross will give us a boost this week,” said Jackman.

“He is a winner, he is very driven and sometimes there is one player who can make a huge difference, being a catalyst and calming everyone down.”

Jackman continued his pre-season policy of watching the game from the dugout rather than the gantry with his coaches Barry Maddocks, Ceri Jones and Hendre Marnitz.

“In France the head coach was always in the dugout and I just want to be able to give clear messages to the subs coming on,” he said.

“It’s something that we will stick with, I am getting plenty of abuse but I deserve it when we play like that!”