IT should have been a dream start to the European Rugby Challenge Cup but instead Newport Gwent Dragons have been left needing to turn the tables on Newcastle in the North East in January.

The Dragons' fate in Pool Three is still in their own hands after a 30-26 loss to Newcastle but they could so easily have had one foot in the quarter-finals.

The region, who stunned Stade Francais on opening weekend, were inches away from a second five-point haul but instead they had to settle for a losing bonus point.

No doubt the players were still wide awake in the early hours of Saturday morning lamenting a pair of Newcastle tries from charge downs, a trio of botched five-metre lineouts and their failure to barge over the line in a breathless attack in the 80th minute.

The Dragons would probably have settled for six points from two games given their lengthy injury list and shocking Guinness Pro12 form.

But the way that they achieved that tally, doing the hard work in Paris and wasting it in Newport, is deflating. It leaves them with no margin for error.

Director of rugby Lyn Jones said: "It's bitterly disappointing and now we need to go to Newcastle in January and win a game of rugby, which is not out of our reach but we could have made life easier for ourselves.

"We need to play well against Bucharest home and away to get what we want from that and then the key fixture is Newcastle.

"We have to go up there and get a result to set up round six against Stade Francais and be confident of beating them at Rodney Parade.

"There's lots of rugby to be played and by the time we go to Newcastle we should have some players back from injury."

Jones admitted to being "numb" after the Newcastle defeat, pleased with so much of their attacking endeavour but frustrated with costly errors that denied them a morale-boosting win.

"Individual errors, some of which were Keystone Cops standard, gifted Newcastle 17 points," he said.

"Losing three five-metre lineouts was hugely disappointing; we should have scored at least one of them. The way that went about calling them and deciding what we were going to do was just not good enough.

"The game is about scoring points and not conceding, when you are scoring 26 you'd expect to win at home.

"I've got to give Newcastle credit, they were organised, fought hard and worked for the jersey but it's not the result we were hoping and looking for.

"We are a group that are trying to grow and we need those victories to help that growth. We've got to take it on the chin and move forward."