FORMER Wales hooker Rhys Thomas ranks Newport Gwent Dragons’ collapse in Edinburgh as among the hardest losses he has endured in his 14-year career and admits the Rodney Parade region are hindered by a culture of defeat.

The Dragons play their final game of the season when they take on Cardiff Blues in Caerphilly on Saturday (kick-off 5.15pm) and are bidding for a first win in all competitions since January 16.

They should have brought an end to that streak last Friday when they led Edinburgh 20-3 with just eight minutes left after tries by Pat Howard and Carl Meyer put them on the brink of a victory that would have lifted them above the ninth-placed Scots in the Guinness PRO12 table.

However, they imploded and a trio of tries, the last coming after the Dragons were penalised when in possession with just 10 seconds remaining, condemned them to a 24-20 loss and a season without a win away from Rodney Parade.

The Dragons haven’t triumphed on the road in the PRO12 since beating Treviso in March, 2015 and have won just four games in the league this season, a record that Thomas says contributed to their late capitulation at Myreside.

“It was one of the hardest ones to take in my career,” said the 35-year-old hooker, who won 27 caps and made his debut for Cardiff in 2003.

“The way that we were in control after 70 minutes, I don’t know… It was a nightmare and I can’t really put it into words. I tried to stay positive in front of the boys afterwards but it’s a hard learning curve.

“The momentum turned but it was still in our own hands and then on the final play we shot ourselves in the foot.

“In all honesty we are not used to being in a position of authority in a game and especially at the end.

“It won’t be that bad as long as we learn from it and if we are in the same position this weekend or next season then we should know what to do.

“We are naïve at times and on the last play we needed to take the ref out of it but instead we gave the opportunity to give a penalty against us. We should have closed the game out and we’ve all been in those situations with other teams but, if we are totally honest, there’s that feeling in the stomach and we need to feel positive rather than still being nervous at 20-3 up.

“It’s engrained in us and in our culture to be looking over our shoulder at 20-3 when we should have still been turning the screw. If we’d have won, it would have gone a long way towards changing that.

“It’s just so frustrating but we have to just use that, take the best bits from the 65 minutes in Edinburgh and finish the season strongly.”

The Dragons head to Caerphilly needing to win to ensure they don’t drop down a place to 11th as the Italian duo of Treviso and Zebre are both three points back and clash in Parma this weekend.

The region’s lowest league placing was in 2013 when they finished with just Zebre beneath them in the table.

The Dragons could still finish level on points with Edinburgh but it would take a pair of freak results for them to leapfrog the Scots, who head to Glasgow, as the teams would be locked on five wins but they have a vastly superior points difference.