BERNARD Jackman believes a heavy loss in Dublin hasn’t derailed the Dragons ahead of their must-win Guinness PRO14 clash with Zebre.

The Rodney Parade region will attempt to record back-to-back wins in Newport when they host the Italians on Saturday (kick-off 5.15pm).

In round two they edged out Southern Kings 27-22 but yesterday they were hammered 52-10 by Leinster, the scoreboard not really reflecting their spirited showing against the champions.

Few expected the Dragons to upset the odds at the Royal Dublin Society and head coach Jackman was pleased with aspects of the display at the Royal Dublin Society, even though the star-studded Irish province ran in seven tries.

“That’s Leinster, that’s the double champions,” said Jackman. “I thought that we scrambled really well in the first 30 minutes, they made a lot of line breaks and we were able to stop their offloading, particularly the inside ball.

“But we scrambled well – traditionally Leinster score when they get five yards out and in the first half we stopped them twice, which is really pleasing.

“We had a good chat and we know that away from home we have to become hard to beat before we can start thinking about winning away from home.

“In France they say that Zebre are ‘concurrent direct’ – a team that we need to beat. That was a focus before the game and it won’t change now.

“The boys are tight and that’s the core thing, everybody working towards the same goal and we’ve got more leadership now.

“Last year the young boys’ heads would drop, they would have a result like that and start questioning everything whereas these lads know it’s part and parcel of the game, come back in on a Monday and work on the right things.

“They know it will take a little while to build things and I am confident we will get it right. To beat a team like Leinster away we have a long way to go, but let’s see where we are at next week.

“It’s a game that we expect to win, it’s our fourth game and you will see improvement. Zebre are a threat if the game becomes loose, but we are very much focussed on getting a win.”

The Italians head into the fixture after triumphing in the two home games against the Kings and Cardiff Blues, although those successes sandwiched a heavy loss at Connacht.