Dragons coach Dai Flanagan admitted he was at the lowest point of his rugby life as pressure mounted on him following the Boxing Day clash with Cardiff.

And he admitted that it was not up to him to decide if he was the man who would lead them, as he promised to continue doing his job.

Gwent’s men scored seven first-half tries in the 55-21 defeat at the Arms Park and any hopes of a second league win of the season were quickly dashed by the blue and black. Afterwards, Flanagan admitted that his team seemed shocked by the defeat as “everyone froze together”.

The pressure will now fall on Flanagan and his team, who have won just twice in all competitions this season. And the nature of the defeat in Cardiff meant it was a low point for the manager, now in his second year at the club. Get the latest rugby news straight to your inbox for free with our daily newsletter.

“It’s the lowest I’ve ever been,” a despondent Flanagan later admitted. “I’ve been playing rugby for a long time and watching that game in the first half was very difficult.

“It seems like we trained well and prepared well. There was a lot of excitement in the group and then you see it on the pitch and it’s difficult to understand why. “We have to understand why, because this is not acceptable in a derby against local rivals.” .

“That’s the frustrating thing. We were frozen en masse, collectively and individually. They pressured us and we collapsed. Once again, we are sorry. I’m personally sorry. It’s unacceptable.”

Naturally, now you might be wondering if Flanagan is the man to lead the Rodney Parade team. He admitted he couldn’t answer that question himself, but insisted he needed to find out.

“It’s true I’m under pressure,” he said. “I’ve been watching football and rugby for years, where people ask me if you’re the right person and it’s not up to me to answer.

“It’s up to me to improve this team. This will take some time. All this takes time, but we cannot agree with that.

“I could imagine that (that the pressure would only increase), but I opened my eyes wide to the world. It’s my first show and I will continue with my business as usual.

“It’s difficult, it’s difficult. It was difficult and difficult for many people before me. I need to figure this out.

Surprisingly, the Dragons finished the game with one extra point in four attempts, despite being down by more than 30 points. However, Flanagan was brutally honest in admitting his team deserved nothing at the Arms Park.

“Yes, let’s be honest,” he said, “we didn’t deserve anything today.” The correct result was due to this performance.

“It wouldn’t be right for us to take an extra point. As I told the group, it is not acceptable. Today is a big event. Big players play important games and we don’t.

“I really don’t want to take away the positive. This is not the first time this has happened and it cannot always be given a positive meaning. Not good enough. It is the biggest event the club has held in a long time and ends after 25 minutes. Nobody wants to see that.”

Regarding his next destination, he added: “We have to be honest with each other. It’s really hard to put a positive spin on something like this because things like this should never happen. We need to be collectively closer and see that we are not connected to each other. It’s a challenge because we have to be in this together.”