BOSS Lyn Jones issued a mea culpa after his under-the-weather Newport Gwent Dragons were caught cold by a stunning Bath start, writes Chris Kirwan.

The English outfit romped to a 30-13 Amlin Challenge Cup victory at Rodney Parade and had their bonus point in the bag after just 31 minutes.

It secured top spot in Pool Two ahead of Thursday's final round of action that sees the Dragons head to Mogliano and Bath hosting Bordeaux-Begles.

Not only were the Rodney Parade region comprehensively beaten but they suffered injuries to fly-half Jason Tovey (knee), wing Tom Prydie (ankle) and lock Andrew Coombs (broken nose).

Jones was taking nothing away from the West Country outfit but felt his own decisions didn't help the Dragons' cause in what was their worst display of the campaign.

"I am disappointed with myself because we had a lot of ill health last week and I shouldn't have selected the boys that had been ill," said the director of rugby.

"I should have known better than that because we were not at the races for the first 20 minutes and Bath were very good.

"It was unusual for us to concede the four tries in that manner and the injuries compounded the first half display.

"You can't just dismiss a performance like that; you have to look into them and be prepared to see things that are quite ugly.

"We won't dwell on this for too long but the determination that we showed (in the home game) against Cardiff Blues was sorely missing. Hopefully we can pick it up again at Mogliano."

The Dragons must select from their European squad for the clash with the Italian minnows but will ring the changes.

Jones is keen to give as many players a chance as possible in the Amlin finale and the LV= Cup clashes with Northampton and Newcastle.

"Mogliano are a decent side that play a bit of football, which is nice to see," he said.

"Boys are playing for positions and I promised after the debacle in Cardiff that I would see everyone play over this month so that I know our best team going into (the return of the RaboDirect Pro12) in February."