Dean Ryan blames Dragons players for Edinburgh mauling

Dean Ryan has hammered the performance of his Dragons side after they conceded seven tries against Edinburgh in the opening round of the URC.

Having finished second from bottom in the league last season, Dragons began the new season with a point to prove and showed positive signs in the early exchanges.

Good work at the breakdown put Edinburgh under pressure and gave the Welsh province two early shots at goal which were converted by summer signing JJ Hanrahan, who joined from Clermont.

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With a 6-0 lead Dragons continued to threaten but failed to take advantage of their momentum before the tide swung in Edinburgh’s favour. Despite starting slowly, Mike Blair’s side punished their wasteful opposition by scoring seven tries in 35 minutes, all but killing the game.

Scotland international bagged two tries in that period of dominance, helping Edinburgh register a comprehensive 44-6 victory at the DAM Health Stadium.

After the game, Dragons director of rugby Ryan laid waste to his side for their costly individual errors when speaking on Premier Sports, thoroughly unimpressed by what he saw.

“The second half was just not good enough. Too many basic mistakes. If we’re going to get better, we need to hold some hard conversations about why those things keep turning up,” Ryan said.

“I thought we looked nervous in the first 20 minutes when we probably had some opportunities, but couldn’t hold onto the ball.”

🐉 @dragonsrugby‘s director of rugby Dean Ryan reacts to his team’s loss to Edinburgh and discusses what needs to change

“We need to hold some hard conversations about how that can happen in the first game of the season.” 🗣️#EDIvDRA pic.twitter.com/U0qzZEXHgB

— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) September 17, 2022

The verbal barrage continued as Ryan criticised the work ethic and desire apparent within his squad.

“We’ve got supposed talent in this squad, but I don’t see it at the moment. I don’t see the work rate that was needed or the desire to be in the right position. We need to hold some hard conversations about how that can happen in the first game of the season.

“It’ll be interesting to see where players take it. I think there’s a lot of people talking now and interesting what they do about it. There’s a point with this region where senior players need to come together and take it in a strong direction.”

Ryan finished off his interview by claiming the coaching tactics were not responsible for the mistakes being made on the field.

“I don’t think this is about tactically what we do in the middle third or anything else. This is about some key fundamentals that we’re not getting right and we need to discuss those internally.

“We’ve got to play together. We’ve got to hold conversations together and we’ve got to go out and get better. Let’s see how we do.”