Landman: Dragons edging closer to wins

The Dragons were not able to back-up their shock victory over Stade Francais in Paris with another win this weekend, going down 30-26 at home to Newcastle Falcons in Europe.

Newport sit ninth in the GUINNESS PRO12 after picking up just one win from their first six games, against bottom-side Treviso.

But the 28-year-old lock - who took over the Dragons captaincy when Lee Byrne limped off against Newcastle - insisted that better Newport showings coupled with the return of key players from injury would soon translate into wins for the Rodney Parade outfit.

"There are a few boys coming back soon and competition for places is always good, getting a few of them back onto the pitch will help us as a squad," he said.

"We are playing a lot better than we did three or four weeks ago with ball in hand and getting out of our own half. But if you don't win the games, what does it help really?

"I am more gutted with a loss like the one against Newcastle than losing 33-13 at home to Glasgow, because we played really well and lost.

"We had the upper hand throughout but made two mistakes, two charged down kicks that lead to tries cost us dearly.

"We gave everything and built phases to put them under pressure but couldn't capitalise.

"We can't blame the ref. We can't blame anything, just ourselves - we made those two mistakes and it cost us.

"You have to win your home games and the away win in Paris gave us a real chance of getting to the knockout stages in Europe. We want to get to there so every game is vital for us now."

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