LOCK Rynard Landman says Newport Gwent Dragons cannot afford to be as wasteful with the ball if they are to get their season up and running against Treviso on Sunday.

The Rodney Parade region have put in a trio of disappointing performances in defeat to Connacht, the Ospreys and Glasgow in the Guinness Pro12.

It leaves them with no margin for error against their struggling Italian visitors in Newport this weekend.

But if the Dragons are to break their duck then they will need to cut out the errors that have put them on the back foot for the lion’s share of all three games.

The stats from last weekend make ugly reading for the region, despite playing for 30 minutes with a man advantage courtesy of the controversial red card shown to Glasgow flanker Tyrone Holmes.

The hosts had 39 per cent of possession, made 76 carries to 124 and ran for 284 metres compared to the visitors’ 585 metres.

Alarmingly it was more even in the first half when it was 15 versus 15; the Dragons had 47 per cent possession, carried 41 times to Glasgow’s 47 and made 149 metres to 219.

“We can’t keep hold of the ball and if you want to win a game you have to score 20-plus points but at the moment we don’t take the ball more than two phases,” lamented South African lock Landman, who was captain against Glasgow.

“We are just defending for 60 per cent of the game and you can’t win games like that.

“We had a one-man advantage and you have to lift the tempo and keep hold of the ball, but a man advantage doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the ball and have to defend.”

The Dragons have been beaten by a trio of teams that are yet to taste defeat in the Pro12 but they can ill afford to come a cropper against Treviso.

The Italians lost plenty of their top players to the Aviva Premiership in the summer and head to Newport on the back of three heavy defeats and have conceded an average of 28 points and five tries per game.

It may still be September but it is undoubtedly a must-win clash.

Landman said: “We had a good draw playing three of the first four games at home but we can’t take any momentum into Treviso, so we are looking to start again and go back to the drawing board.”