DAI Flanagan has called on the Dragons to show more steel on the road when they take on Irish heavyweights Leinster tonight.
The Rodney Parade club have travelled to Dublin (kick-off 7.35pm) on a high after their dramatic win against the Ospreys on the opening weekend of the United Rugby Championship.
Their Welsh rivals were unable to kill off the Dragons at Rodney Parade and were stung when tighthead Luke Yendle crashed over on the 26th phase of an attack with the clock in the red.
Flanagan’s men showed resilience in Newport that has been sorely lacking on their travels.
Last season they lost all 11 fixtures away from Rodney Parade with their opponents bagging four-try bonuses on nine occasions.
There were embarrassing drubbings at Cardiff, Muster, the Sharks, Lions and Glasgow, while the season before had featured a 73-33 humiliation by the Warriors in Scotland.
With Dragons fans able to watch every away game on television, the head coach knows the importance of giving them more to cheer.
“We will really need to lean on what our place is built on. We need protect each other, go hard and deliver a big performance,” said Flanagan.
“It’s the same size field as Rodney Parade, it’s a big stadium around it and different opposition but we are still playing on a rugby pitch.
“For as long as I can remember the Dragons haven’t done well away from home but why not start this weekend?
“Teams build momentum and it’s how we control that and capitalise on our opportunities.
“There have been occasions since I have been here when we have found it really tough to stop the momentum but we are trying our best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The Dragons got the campaign off to a winning start but they recognise that it could have very easily been another sob story.
Their discipline and penalty count needs to improve at the Aviva Stadium or there is no chance of leaving with their heads held high ahead of key home fixtures against the Sharks, Lions and Benetton.
“We have been very grounded. There were good parts and work-ons from the Ospreys game and we had a very honest review, as we do win, lose or draw,” said Flanagan.
“We move on to Leinster where we will try to be better. There has been a spring in everybody’s step after a win at home in the first game of the season, which hadn’t been done for 11 years, but we have work to do.
“We have to take emotion out of what we do in a lot of the stuff that we do because there are so many highs and lows in rugby.
“You need to be process-driven and not think about outcomes. That’s what will make us better, play by play and phases by phase.
“We saw certain elements that we really liked and certain elements that we can get better at.”
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