SECOND row Cory Hill says Newport Gwent Dragons need to find the “secret ingredient” that will help them play in the Guinness Pro12 like they do in Europe.

The Rodney Parade region have reached the semi-finals of the European Challenge Cup in the last two seasons, while at the same time their league form has suffered.

Head coach Kingsley Jones has seen his charges start the new campaign in similar fashion with a solitary defeat of Zebre their only win in the Pro12 to date.

However, in the Challenge Cup, the Dragons came from behind to beat French side Brive last Friday – Brive are seventh in the Top 14 with victories over Racing 92, Toulon and Stade Francais to their name.

Lock Hill and his Dragons teammates will look to make it back-to-back Challenge Cup triumphs on Saturday when they take on Enisei-STM in the Russian city of Krasnodar.

When asked why his team seem to turn it on in Europe and cannot get the results in the Pro12, Hill said: “We are doing the same things week in, week out and obviously we clicked against Brive.

“It was nice to put it right and come away with a bonus point. I think we weathered the storm pretty well and the final 20 minutes were really pleasing.

“We’ve just got to get into a winning habit in the league now.

“We’ve proved over the last couple of years we can do that in Europe, but then struggled a bit in the league. We need to find that secret ingredient.”

He added: “We can’t keep on saying we’re looking to the future but we have got a young squad and we are building.

“As a unit, we need to improve and we need to start getting better and winning games.

“We’ve improved our set-piece massively over the last two years and I think we’re going in the right direction.

“Our driving maul is coming on leaps and bounds, as is our scrum, and we’ve got a decent set of forwards who are all fighting for the starting eight jerseys.

“There is good competition in the squad, which is what you need, and it stands us in good stead.”