Gloucester boss Dean Ryan is ready for the "business end" of the Anglo-Welsh Cup © Getty Images

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Tournaments/Tours: Anglo-Welsh Cup

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Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan claimed his side could move on into the business end of the Anglo-Welsh Cup after their 25-20 victory over a gallant Newport-Gwent Dragons at Kingsholm.

But, with the Cherry and Whites involved in both the Premiership and Heineken Cup, he admitted the Anglo-Welsh competition was not the biggest priority of the campaign.

Tries from Lesley Vainikolo, who got two, hooker Scott Lawson and England international Iain Balshaw saw Gloucester home against the Dragons who grabbed touchdowns from impressive wing Richard Fussell, Kiwi number eight Grant Webb and replacement Jason Tovey.

Ryan said, "These EDFs are fraught with the amount of changes you have got to your side and you put that on top of some mistakes that we are repeating in our side and we lack cohesion.

"We had similar mistakes last week and it makes some things we did well look rather shaky. The Dragons worked very hard and their kicking game in the first half never gave us any field position. You have to give them credit and it took us a long time to get going, slightly longer than we hoped."

As for the tournament itself, Ryan added, "It is very difficult to have the priorities of the Premiership and the Heineken Cup and then think they can still have the same priorities for a third competition.

"We are trying but the amount of rugby will ultimately dictate that we cannot be successful. You are always in danger, when you run three tournaments alongside each other that something will give.

"It is not a priority it is just that players cannot play that amount of high intensity rugby all the time."

Dragons boss Paul Turner was thoroughly disappointed that his side went down to defeat, despite getting a losing bonus point, in a game he felt was there to be won.

Turner, once an assistant coach at Gloucester, said, "We were at the stage today that, if you are going to win at Kingsholm, it was there for us. It was on the table but we were too loose and too soft.

"We talked to the players about coming to these places and, when victory is in sight, you have got to nail it. I'm pretty disappointed at the way it went from us very quickly. We planned all week about areas we wanted to play against Gloucester and you can see that from our tries.

"I'm just generally cheesed off. Being here is a great place to come and parade your skills and many of our side did that today. I don't think Gloucester actually won it today, I think we lost it."