CENTRE Adam Warren wants Newport Gwent Dragons to maintain their more clinical edge to ensure Europe is a turning point in their season.

The Dragons have endured a tough start to the Guinness Pro12 with just one win from six games to sit 10th in the table with the Italian duo of Treviso and Zebre the only teams beneath them.

Against Munster, Glasgow and the Scarlets they have performed with spirit and bite only to endure frustrating defeats, although the 31-27 derby loss in Llanelli did at least yield a pair of bonus points.

That attacking performance was a boon for the Dragons after a season in which they have applied plenty of pressure in the 22 of their opponents only to let them off the hook with errors.

Warren, who scored two of the four tries against his former Scarlets teammates, hopes they can keep in the try-scoring groove against Brive at Rodney Parade in the Challenge Cup on Friday (kick-off 7.30pm), but also acknowledges the need to tighten up at the other end.

“It was a tough one to take because we played some good rugby and scored some nice tries, and it was obviously good for me to get over against my old team,” said the 25-year-old from Burry Port.

“But on the other hand we gifted them some easy tries back and if we hadn’t done that it would have been a different result.

“It was pleasing that we scored the tries because in the last few weeks we’ve got into the opposition’s 22 and come away with nothing. It was good that we scored four and as much as we’d love to have won, we took two points away so it’s a positive in that sense.

“We just need to tidy things up and stop gifting easy points, then we’ll start winning some of the tough games.”

Warren was to the fore as the Dragons repeated their exploits from 2015 by making the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup last season. He hopes a change of competition sparks a change of fortune.

“Over the last few years Europe has been a turning point for the Dragons. We haven’t started as we’d have liked but we haven’t been a million miles off,” he said.

“If we can start well in Europe and get a bit of confidence from a few wins then we can build and move on in the league.

“Brive will be a tough team but our home games are massive and we normally play well against French teams.

We’ve got to be positive and fancy ourselves at home.”

After starting every Dragons game last season Warren has had a slightly more sedate start to 2016/17 with Kingsley Jones’ midfield riches enabling him to rotate his team.

The once-capped centre has came off the bench against Munster and sat out the clash against Glasgow; being rested is a necessary evil for the centres to stay at the top of the game.

“Maybe looking back last season there were one or games where I slipped off a tackle I might not have or made a (bad) decision where it might have been down to fatigue,” admitted Warren.

“Kingsley knows he has to have a squad full of players capable of producing the goods week in, week out. Jack Dixon and Tyler Morgan are back fit and everyone is pushing hard for start – every time we play we have to put in a big performance to hold onto the jersey.”