“We hurt ourselves a lot – it wasn’t a good performance. The occasion got to us and I learned a lot about this tournament from the game,” said Anderson. “I think we probably built up the game too much in the week – we turned it into a do-or-die, knock-out game against an English team and suffered as a result.
“It was more a step up in our minds than anything else. Losing was a bit of a knock, but it isn’t the end of the world for us – we will be a better side for this experience.
“The game in Edinburgh is going to be very important, and Perpignan were fairly awesome against them last weekend, but our biggest challenge is ourselves. If we can get our heads right we are going to be as difficult a team to beat as anyone.”
And Dragons captain Jason Forster was left rueing missed chances and mistakes made.
“If you make a mistake at this level you get punished. That’s what happened to us against Newcastle,” said the Wales flanker. “The teams who go through to the knock-out phase of the Heineken Cup are those teams who take their chances. We didn’t do that last week.
“Now we need to re-group as we prepare for a massive challenge against Edinburgh. It is going to be a huge game for the Dragons.
“We have got the chance to get the show back on the road in the space of a week and we need to grasp that opportunity.”