TAVIS Knoyle says Newport Gwent Dragons need to learn to 'ride the storm' if they are to bring an end to their drought away from Rodney Parade.

The Dragons head to Worcester on Saturday for a crunch game in Pool Three of the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

Victory would give them a great chance of making the knockout stages for the third season on the spin but defeat would leave them needing to win all three remaining games against the Warriors and Enisei in Newport and Brive in France.

The Dragons travel to Sixways looking for their first win on road this season and in six of seven fixtures their hosts have recorded four-try bonus points.

They have lost their last 19 Guinness Pro12 fixtures outside Newport with the latest loss a 28-15 reverse to title hopefuls Leinster in Dublin.

The Dragons showed spirit to finish strongly with tries by wing Pat Howard and scrum-half Sarel Pretorius giving them a chance of a losing bonus point only for the Irish province to repel their late attacks.

"We ended on a high but it's the first 20 minutes that cost us," lamented former Wales scrum-half Knoyle, who joined from Cardiff Blues in October.

"When you go to places like Leinster you have to ride the storm, especially because they were on the back of a defeat (to the Scarlets), but we had too many lapses in concentration.

"But the boys came on and had a big impact from the bench and that's what the squad is about. We all have to play our part and at least we finished strongly.

"There's no negativity here, it's a great place to be and we just move onto the next challenge now because it's a big month for us.

"We have to learn from what went wrong at Leinster as a team and individually and make sure it doesn't happen again at Worcester, because they've been playing some good stuff in the Aviva Premiership.

"We know that we are capable of getting a win there and if we do that then back it up at home then we will go to Cardiff with confidence on Boxing Day.

"I'm sure it will be a packed house at Worcester and it's a great place to play, so we're looking forward to it."

Enisei are currently leading the way in Pool Three thanks to home victories against Worcester and the Dragons and they attempt to make it a clean sweep in Russia when they host Brive in Sochi on Saturday.

The Warriors have rung the changes in Europe to concentrate on Premiership survival and head into Saturday's game on the back of a 26-12 defeat to now West Midlands rivals Wasps in Worcester.