BERNARD Jackman says there's one positive from the Dragons' humbling at the hands of the Kings – it shows how broken the Rodney Parade region is.

The head coach is in the first year at the helm after being brought in by new owners the Welsh Rugby Union last summer to replace Kingsley Jones.

Things have hit the buffers after an encouraging start to the campaign and the Dragons are without a win in the Guinness PRO14 since September.

After losing to Benetton at Rodney Parade and Edinburgh in Ebbw Vale, the region hit a new low on Friday when they shipped six tries in a 45-13 thrashing by a Kings side who had lost all 16 fixtures since joining the European competition.

Jackman has recruited heavily for next season and believes a shocking Year One won't impact on Year Two. In fact, the former Ireland hooker believes it shows that hard decisions have to be made to get better.

Asked if current woes are in danger of setting back 2018/19, the head coach replied: "Not at all. Maybe it's better people realise how bad we are.

"For some reason some people in the region and in the club think that we took over the Scarlets or Leinster, but we have been pretty poor for the last couple of years.

"That has knocked the confidence and meant we have had to rebuild. We are prioritising youngsters at the moment because they are going to play an important role in the future while we have recruited people.

"When I recruited people they didn't think that we were good. They knew that we were poor. That's why I had to convince them to come.

"We need to understand where we are at and we need to go from worst to first. We have got to have a root and branch rebuild, and that's why it's better to know where you are at.

"The worst thing that could happen was to have a couple of decent wins that stops us from making the hard decisions that need to be made if we want to be successful.

"I've seen it happen with Pat Lam and Connacht, Gregor Townsend and Glasgow. Sometimes you have to realise how broken something is before you can fix it properly.

"In September I knew that we needed to recruit. I saw it in pre-season and you always hope that there will be surprises, and there have been a couple, but realistically we just need to rebuild everything.

"Whatever happens between now and the end of the season won't affect next year because we have made decisions about what we need to do.

"The Kings game was embarrassing and we deserve to get criticised. Now we need to make the hard decisions to change, or else it's always going to happen.

"A false dawn would be the worst thing that can happen for us."

The Dragons were beaten in every department by a hungry Kings side, who took confidence from a dazzling score on the stroke of half-time by full-back Masixole Banda that made it 14-13. The hosts scored 31 unanswered points after the break.

The region were hindered by losing flanker Ollie Griffiths in the warm-up at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium while teenage scrum-half Dan Babos had to play the full 80 minutes because Sarel Pretorius, who had been slated to start on his return to South Africa, woke up with a virus.

The Dragons have a fortnight to lick their wounds before preparing to welcome the Cheetahs to Rodney Parade on Friday, March 23.