BERNARD Jackman says his young Dragons need to develop a killer instinct after more late Guinness PRO14 heartbreak in Italy.

Seven days after being beaten with the last kick in Benetton, the Rodney Parade region saw a 26-10 half-time lead turn into a 34-32 defeat at Zebre.

The Dragons took command thanks to a hat-trick by wing Jared Rosser and a bonus-point try from scrum-half Charlie Davies but shipped a quartet of tries after the restart.

Zebre edged in front in L'Aquila and then clung on with the visitors denied a winner by a forward pass and then seeing fly-half Arwel Robson miss a long-range penalty at the death.

"We've just got to learn how to win," said Jackman. "Whereas at Benetton we were disappointed with the referee, this time it was down to our own mistakes.

"We started the game poorly but showed really good resilience and character to go in at half-time in a good position after being with the wind.

"But in the second half our discipline went and we made some poor individual errors that gave Zebre a foothold.

"We let them back into the game and gave them momentum and allowed them to feed off a good crowd by playing with emotion and passion.

"If we had been clinical at the start of the second half, and scored the first points, we would have won.

"We made mental errors and that's what happens when you aren't winning; you don't push on and that's a big learning point for us.

"When you have a team in a bad position then you have to kill them off, and we didn't.

"We are way more competitive and lost two games in Italy by two points, we can sense the wins are there but at the moment we just aren't killing off those key moments."

The Dragons have suffered a third successive away whitewash in the PRO14 and their losing streak stretches back 33 games to Treviso in March, 2015.

However, Jackman does take encouragement from the way that his prospects performed given that his matchday squad at the Stadio Tommaso Fattori featured nine players aged 21 or under.

"The youngsters stood up really well – Arwel, one high-profile error apart, was excellent, Jared Rosser was great with a hat-trick, Taine Basham did well and Max Williams was hungry.

"It's frustrating for the boys because they worked really hard this week and it was a game that we could have won but didn't.

"The difference between this and other years is that there are a lot of youngsters in the 23 that will get better, that's what we've got to concentrate on.

"It's been good for them to be over here for the week and these youngsters now know how hard it is to win in the PRO14, that's important learning for when they come back in.

"The group that came out here was short of first-choice players – Jack Dixon, Tyler Morgan, Hallam Amos, Sarel Pretorius, Gavin Henson, Ollie Griffiths, Leon Brown, Brok Harris is a massive loss for us – but the boys haven't dropped their heads.

"We have shown resilience and character, we just haven't been good enough. As a staff we have to coach them better, and I take responsibility for that, but I can see that there will be a big difference next season."

The Dragons finish their season against the Scarlets at Principality Stadium on Saturday, April 28 as part one of the Judgement Day double-header.