After leading 16-10 with just a minute remaining, the Dragons slipped to defeat when Ryan Spriggs crossed for the Blues seconds before the final whistle. And when Jarrod Evans kicked the conversion, the Dragons were consigned to what was an undeserved defeat.
But Dragons performance manager James Chapron refused to accept his side were unlucky against the Blues and focused on the positives.
“The loss to the Blues was our own fault, it was one of those things,” he said. “Rugby is rugby but we were more pleased with the fact that we were competitive although our defence let us down.
“Rob Sidoli and the coaches have worked quite hard over the summer and our first game was a real improvement from our first two pre-seasons games.”
The Ospreys’ opening game against the Scarlets was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch at Llandarcy and Chapron admits he has seen little of the way tomorrow night’s opponents play.
“We’ve got no footage of them but we will expect them to play an expansive style of rugby but also to be very strong at the set piece which is the Ospreys’ way,” he added.
“We have got a fairly young under 18 group as we lost 14 or 15 from last year’s squad. The Ospreys have a very strong Under 18 side with a number of players in the Welsh squad so it’ll be a big test.”
Dragons: 15 Scott Turner 14 Ashton Hewitt 13 Tyler Morgan 12 Ben Snell 11 Tomas Williams 10 Angus O’Brien 9 Luke Crane (c) 8 Todd James 7 Oliver Griffiths 6 Tom Sparshott 5 Gareth Allen 4 Rhys Verley 3 Keagan Bale 2 Henry Palmer 1 Jake Edwards.
Replacements: Robert Thomas, Harrison Fry, Luke Leddington, Derryn Jones, Evan Whitson, Owen Davies, Ashley Jeffries, Curtis Ayling.
Ospreys: 15 Daf Howells 14 Sam Evans 13 Joe Thomas 12 Tom Evans 11 Jordan Adderley 10 Luke Price 9 Tom Maggs 8 Callum Davies 7 Carl Leyson 6 Jordan Collier 5 Adam Williams 4 Adam Beard 3 Dan Owen 2 Joe Davies 1 Harrison Walsh.
Replacements: Iestyn Merriman, Lewis Jonathan, Jack Powell, Matthew Dodd, Jack Perkins, Niall Popham, Josh White, Scott Govan.
