AFTER last Friday’s game against Zebre I was as upset, frustrated, depressed and annoyed as anyone; we got our season up and running with a win but it wasn’t the performance that we wanted.

There were a vast array of emotions that we had as a squad last weekend but in professional rugby you have to move on quickly.

There was a bit of a post-mortem in training at the start of the week and despite all of the frustration, there were positives from that performance.

On the plus side we created around eight clear chances, but took just one.

That meant the most important stat – the scoreline – wasn’t quite what we wanted; we got the four points for the 11-6 win but in some ways it felt like a loss.

However, the victory means that we head into tomorrow’s game against Munster with some momentum and fingers crossed we can enjoy another win.

One thing that is clear from last week is that we have to show a lot more patience in attack. As I said, we created lots of opportunities but failed to take them because we were forcing things.

Ball retention going more than five phases against Munster will be vital because last week (and at times last season) we were easy to defend against going for a miracle pass or offload when it wasn't quite on.

Our own willingness to play hurt us against Zebre and we grew frustrated at our failure to take chances because in the game it felt that one more score would have broken them, leading to them having to chase the game and force things too.

Being patient will be vital against Munster because if you look at other games in the Guinness Pro12 from round two a theme was that they were in the balance going into the last quarter.

Very rarely do you win a game in the first 40 minutes. The Ospreys won 32-11 at Connacht after it being tight up to 70 minutes while Cardiff Blues were down at Cork before Dan Fish scored in the 68th minute.

Persistence is needed against Munster because they are always a formidable force, although we respect them but don’t fear them after beating them 22-6 at Rodney Parade last season.

We are confident that we will improve on our Zebre performance. At Ulster in round one we struggled because of poor exits but that was a lot better last week, so the aim is to rectify our failure to take chances this time.

There were some good individual performances in Belfast and against Zebre but more of us have to be on song if we are to take the win tomorrow.

Forwards must complement backs and vice versa. We will have a simple gameplan and must execute it well.

A word of thanks for the Dragons supporters who came to our first post-match Q&A at The Lamb in Bridge Street after the Zebre game.

I thought that Ed Jackson and Charlie Davies spoke brilliantly after what was a tough, frustrating evening, trying to explain where we had gone wrong and what just needs a little bit of tinkering for Munster.

I enjoyed being able to chat to supporters and get their thoughts about the game and it will be the same tomorrow evening. Hopefully there will be plenty of positive feedback.