NEWPORT Gwent Dragons need to get the nuts and bolts of their game right if they are to spark their attacking game into life, says coach Shaun Connor.

The Dragons have made a sloppy start to the Guinness Pro12 season with four defeats on their travels and two rather underwhelming successes against Zebre and Treviso at Rodney Parade.

They need to up their game considerably if they are to maintain that home winning streak on Sunday when they host Ulster (kick-off 2.30pm).

The Dragons head into the game on the back of a deflating loss to the Scarlets in which they were flattered by the 25-15 scoreline.

Fly-half Jason Tovey and scrum-half Sarel Pretorius scored tries out west but the Rodney Parade side failed to trouble their hosts on too many occasions, hindered once again by a high error count.

"It was the same old story," said backs coach Connor. "We feel that we are preparing well in the week but things we are doing in training are not transferring to games.

"The onus is on us to make sure we get our message across in training. We are not quite there in attack and that's because we are living off scraps.

"If you can't get your launches right from scrum and lineout – and this is not blaming the forwards, it's a team thing – then you don't get go-forward from first phases and then struggle with attacking shapes."

Ulster head to Newport on the back of a 32-28 loss at Munster in which they bagged a pair of bonus points thanks to tries by lock Dan Tuohy, number eight Nick Williams and wing Craig Gilroy (2).

The Dragons beat the men from Belfast last season in stunning fashion – with injured wing Hallam Amos memorably dumping Springboks ace Ruan Pienaar on his backside with a powerful hand-off when setting up Carl Meyer's crucial score – and Connor says they are more concerned with getting back to that level than worrying about the powerful Irish province.

"There are no easy games and we need to look at ourselves more than the opposition. We need to get our own house in order and the buck stops with us," he said.

"The players want to get better and understand the mistakes collectively and individually are not acceptable and we are working hard to put them right.

"We played the Scarlets in pre-season and felt we were two evenly-matched teams. They have kicked on while we have stagnated.

"It comes down to our error rate and if we keep making mistakes we are always going to struggle."