BOSS Dean Ryan says the Dragons will be fuelled by frustration when they prepare for Saturday’s daunting Champions Cup date with Bordeaux-Begles.

The Rodney Parade side will head to France on the back of a 24-8 home loss to Wasps in their return to European rugby’s top tier after a decade in the Challenge Cup.

The Dragons will train as normal this week after a pair of positive coronavirus tests led to their plans being torn up last weekend.

Wing Ashton Hewitt, tighthead props Leon Brown and Lloyd Fairbrother, lock Matthew Screech and flankers Harri Keddie and Aaron Wainwright were pulled out of the matchday squad.

Analysts studied training footage and spotted four individuals that came into close contact with the unnamed positive pair.

The Dragons’ squad and management will be tested on Tuesday, as they are every week, to get the green light for Bordeaux.

And director of rugby Ryan believes his squad will head to the Stade Chaban-Delmas knowing that they blew a chance to cause an upset after being just 12-8 down after 70 minutes against last season’s English runners-up.

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“We challenge ourselves to be better than that. I am not expecting us to be Champions Cup winners but I am expecting us to learn,” said Ryan.

“There were some real credits in there – there always is – but also we have got to be better in those moments.

“That’s what the top level is. It’s exactly the same game, just the big moments are done with more precision, better execution and more clarity.

“You have got to play in those games, you can talk about them, and today will have been a huge learning experience for us.

“There will be some frustration and that’s a great emotion, because there were moments where we have been better in the past than we were against Wasps.”

The pre-match disruption could have led to a one-side drubbing but the Dragons got their tactics spot-on against dangerous opposition.

"I'm always proud of the Dragons,” said Ryan. “We're playing in this environment to keep adding to our lessons and I think we had a moment, maybe two, where we could have won the game.

“We didn’t go to Rodney Parade to play the sort of game that one of the fastest sides in the English Premiership wants to play, we went to frustrate and hold them in high field position.

“I think that it worked, we just missed the chances. The game isn’t necessarily about adding loads of things, it’s about being better in the moments you have.

“There was a moment there where we could have beaten last season’s Premiership finalists, irrespective of everything that had gone on. We didn’t take our chances and then they took theirs.”

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The Dragons now face a Bordeaux side who are in a strong position to make the knockout stages courtesy of an away win at Northampton.

The French side were leading last season’s Top 14 when it was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

They boast a formidable squad featuring Ben Tameifuna, Cameron Woki, Scott Higginbotham, Matthieu Jalibert and late hero at Franklin's Gardens Santiago Cordero.

The Dragons haven’t won a top-tier European game since beating Glasgow in October 2009. They were whitewashed in the 2010/11 tournament.