How do Dragons take next step after turnaround?
With the pain of a narrow Challenge Cup exit in Montpellier still raw, Dragons co-captain Angus O'Brien pledged to use the semi-final defeat as "fuel". The immediate task for the Rodney Parade club is to finish a dramatically improved season strongly before picking up where they left off in 2026-27. It has been a turnaround that few saw coming when Dragons, who finished bottom of the United Rugby Championship (URC) last season, hit a new low in December.
Filo Tiatia's side were thrashed at previously winless Perpignan in round one of the Challenge Cup, then trailed Lyon 21-6 in the final quarter in Newport. Three tries and O'Brien's conversion ended a 14-month wait for a victory and proved to be a turning point. It started a five-match unbeaten run on home soil and led to qualification for the knockout stages of Europe, where Dragons won on the road at Stade Francais and Zebre.
Montpellier was a step too far but progress has undoubtedly been made, and now the challenge is to keep going. "Looking at the whole squad in a huddle at the end of the game, I guarantee they will have been referencing how they finish with their best foot forward, because they have turned the corner since Christmas," said former Dragons scrum-half Richie Rees on BBC Radio Wales. Dragons will lose the element of surprise they had having come into this season on the back of a nightmare 2024-25.
They finished bottom of the URC for the first time and Tiatia won just once – at Newcastle in the Challenge Cup – after taking the reins from Dai Flanagan. Dragons have changed perceptions this season by becoming a tougher nut to crack; they pushed champions Leinster all the way in Newport when controversially denied a late chance to level and lost in the closing stages at Munster and Ospreys. In Montpellier they stood up to the hosts' driving line-out – which is the best in the competition and did for Connacht in the quarter-finals – and their resilience was summed up by the turnovers of Thomas Young and Rio Dyer chasing a lost cause to save a try.
Tiatia demanded that his team learnt to stay in the fight and they have done that more regularly. Rivals know that Dragons are no longer a soft touch and will not take them lightly, which means they must up their game again. But while defence has improved, they still have the second worst record in the URC for points and tries conceded.