By Dylan Salt
DRAGONS boss Dean Ryan was reserved in his praise for his players after watching them chalk up a fine 31-17 victory against Castres in the opening round of the European Challenge Cup.
A hat-trick of tries from brilliant young No.8 Taine Basham helped Ryan’s men into a commanding 28-3 lead by half-time.
And although a weakened French team improved after the break, the Dragons defence held firm for the bonus point win which will come as a welcome confidence boost following a difficult start to their Guinness PRO14 campaign.
However, any notion that Ryan would shower plaudits on his players was misplaced.
The former England No.8 said: “Weirdly, I’m not that happy. I don’t think that was anywhere near where we can be.
🎥 POST MATCH | @richardhibbard2 reaction to Dragons @ERChallengeCup bonus point victory 👊👍 over Castres with @owaingwynedd for 🐉 📺
🗣 " We left a lot out there" #DRAvCAS pic.twitter.com/r3W1i5fw3C
— Dragons 🏉 (@dragonsrugby) November 16, 2019
“I think a couple of tries probably masked that in the first half.
“We have got to enjoy winning, but also understand that we can be way better than that.
“First half we were bailing out of things and every time they attacked us they caused us huge amounts of problems.”
With Ryan’s old club Worcester and Russian outfit Enesei STM for company in Pool One, the Dragons will fancy their chances of a push for the knockout stages.
They travel to Krasnodar to face Enesei next Friday night before a December double-header against Worcester that will likely go a long way to deciding their qualification fate.