Newport Gwent Dragons coach Paul Turner reckons the rout by Biarritz was just the alarm call his side needed.
Turner fears recent impressive performances in the Magners League led many of his players to believe they only had to turn up for the European clash in the south of France.
But, following the crushing six-try romp by the French giants, Turner sent out the message that there must be no repeat of the 49-13 defeat, the heaviest in the Gwent region’s Heineken Cup history.
Turner said: “There is a lot of anger in the dressing room and it will be the kick up the backside a lot of the players need. You don’t come to France and make those kind of errors.”
“I’m disappointed with the performance and result as I’d spoken about the importance of the first 20 minutes.
“Most of the things we talked about in the lead-up to the match we didn’t do. At half-time, I told the players they had committed too many offences and I felt we presented the game to Biarritz.”
Turner’s misery was compounded by seeing forwards Hugh Gustafson and Grant Webb sin-binned in a torrid opening period at the Parc des Sports Aguilera.
Turner added: “Our discipline was so poor and against a side like Biarritz, you get left in the wake.
“We gave too many penalties away, and two of those led to 14 points. That allowed them to get territory and when a French side gets momentum then they want more.
“We will speak to the players about our discipline as one thing lead to another. When you concede penalties here, players like Damien Traille will ping you back 60 metres and Dimitri Yachvili is a world-class player. They punished us.
“Maybe, the scoreline was harsh on us but, at 16-6, they scored from the kick-off and then we immediately gave them an intercept. The game disappeared for us.
“But, although we were under pressure, most of the scores were from our doing.”
The Dragons face a re-match at Rodney Parade on Friday night and Turner revealed he expects to be without injured duo Dan Lydiate and Jason Tovey who limped off.
Turner said: “The injuries don’t look good but we won’t know for certain until Monday. Dan has a hamstring injury while Jason’s is an ankle problem and they both will probably miss next Friday. It will test our squad to the full.”
