TO err is human but professional rugby is unforgiving.

One mistake, a single slight misread in defence, can prove to be the difference between victory and defeat.

The better the player, the fewer the errors. The higher the level, the more those faults stand out.

We watch rugby to be entertained and the main drama often, but not always, comes through tries.

We all love to see players gliding through gaps but for every attacker making a big play there is usually a defender dropping a clanger.

The festive Guinness PRO12 derbies provided some with ammunition to lambast the regional game, a few critics stating that they get more entertainment elsewhere.

The chief spark for such claims was the kick-heavy game between Newport Gwent Dragons and the Ospreys at a boggy Rodney Parade.

I may be in a minority in that I found it a fairly engaging game – more tries doesn’t necessarily equal ultimate rugby – but at times it was undeniably a hard watch as the ball was pinged from 22 to 22.

The Dragons supporters on the Hazell Terrace certainly thought so by sarcastically cheering every time that boot was put to ball by Dan Biggar, Angus O’Brien, Sam Davies and Carl Meyer.

However, one wonders whether they’d prefer their team to commit harikiri by running into a brick wall of defenders against the PRO12’s second stingiest side.

Of course we want the Dragons to show attacking intent and on the whole they have done that this season. In 9 home games they have scored 22 tries and that average should improve with Treviso, Enisei and Newcastle heading to Newport this month.

Even without Hallam Amos, their most potent attacking weapon, Kingsley Jones’ side have played much better stuff than they did in 2015/16.

But it still has to be a case of playing at the right time, at the right place and against the Ospreys they were right to kick but just didn’t do it well enough against two superb operators in Biggar and Davies.

It was a pretty comfortable 10-0 win for the title hopefuls but the scoreline prompted those calls about the best entertainment of the weekend coming from the televised Principality Premiership fixture between Pontypridd and Cross Keys.

That game at Sardis Road did have its moments but, at the risk of mirroring Alan Hansen and being a misery guts, it was easy to pinpoint individual defensive errors that allowed tries to be scored.

This is not to put down those players, that particular game, those clubs or the league – Premiership clubs have two short training sessions a week with squad members and coaches heading there after a full day at work.

But teams don’t have a more positive approach to the game per se, they just have a lot more time on the ball and games still include missed opportunities in attack as well as defence.

And while of course their games matter, careers aren’t on the line, there isn’t the pressure, glare or scrutiny.

The higher the level, the less room for error and that is why Dragons wing Ashton Hewitt, a dazzling runner, needs to keep demonstrating his defensive improvement if he is to earn a Wales call-up after a rare but high-profile missed tackle against Cardiff Blues.

When fewer mistakes are made, they become more costly and the key moment in the Ospreys defeat came with one missed tackle – Sam Beard, who has had a fine first half of the season, slipping off Tom Habberfield in the build-up to Justin Tipuric’s try.

Each to their own and some prefer the Premiership, WRU Championship and lower leagues but we must understand the reason for it providing ‘more entertainment’.

Running the ball back from your 22 at professional level has a very low success rate, let alone on a heavy pitch that sneaked past a pitch inspection.

Rugby seems to be taking up the challenge of being less risk-averse but it’s still a battle of who has the lower number on the error count. It takes bravery to back your attacking skills but shrewd judgement of when to use them is also required.

We can’t expect full-time players to be more unprofessional.

South Wales Argus:

NO coach is genuinely excited by opportunity knocking through injury, no boss wants to develop more strength in depth thanks to a lengthy list on the sidelines.

However, setbacks do sometimes have long-term benefits and England look set to prosper in the build up to the World Cup in Japan in 2019.

Eddie Jones guided his side to a perfect 2016 despite being denied the services of Maro Itoje, George Kruis, James Haskell and Anthony Watson.

England’s depth and resources is well documented but, even though Itoje and Watson are back, they will be further stretched by the expected absences of Vunipola brothers and Joe Launchbury while there are doubts over Chris Robshaw.

"This is the way it is with injuries. As we said in November, it is chance to create some more depth," said Jones.

"For 2017 we are going to be missing potentially four of the starting pack, but we got through November without seven front-line players. So it's a great opportunity, exciting.”

Wales counterpart Rob Howley is also preparing to face such ‘excitement’ with Taulupe Faletau suffering another blow and facing a race to be fit while Dan Lydiate, Gethin Jenkins, Bradley Davies and Hallam Amos will be missing.

They are all quality players but their absence opens up spots in the squad, which last season was 37-strong when Warren Gatland named it in mid-January.

Faletau’s problems have led to Ross Moriarty establishing himself as a starter, Lydiate’s misfortune could open the door for someone like Ellis Jenkins, Thomas Young or Ollie Griffiths to feature in the squad as back-up to Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric, Jenkins’ blow will lead to Rob Evans getting the chance to build on his fine 2016 with Nicky Smith his deputy, Amos is a burgeoning player himself but will Keelan Giles, Ashton Hewitt or Steff Evans now get a break?

Sometimes we are too quick to call for change and it’s easy to extol the virtues of the man on the outside rather than remembering the qualities of the incumbent (see the push for Sam Davies to get the nod ahead of the still excellent Dan Biggar).

Nobody wishes injury on players but the up side is that is can make experimentation a necessity.