DRAGONS boss Dean Ryan hailed back row forward Taine Basham for being a bright light in a heavy defeat to Leinster on Friday night.

The Guinness PRO14 champions ran out 50-15 winners at the Royal Dublin Society after scoring five of their eight tries after the break.

Full-back Jordan Williams went over for the Dragons in the first half and wing Owen Jenkins scored at the death, but it was a chastening evening for Ryan's men.

However, the director of rugby was pleased by the performance of Basham, who turned 20 on Saturday.

The back rower from Talywain ran for 57 metres from 12 carries, made 14 tackles and put himself about the park to earn Ryan's seal of approval.

South Wales Argus:

"I thought Taine Basham was outstanding for a young man in those circumstances. We shouldn't lose sight of that," he said.

"Results sometimes can colour some great performances so full credit to him.

"I was pleased for him. He came in and challenged some of the things he did in the game. He tried to simplify his game to try and get some of his more physical attributes in.

"I thought, against real quality opposition, we saw that. I don't want things like that to get lost when results can be what you read about.

"In reality, when people look a little but under the surface, they will see some really good things from people like Taine."

Leinster turned a 19-8 lead at half-time into a half-century triumph with Ryan unhappy with his team's reaction to the game getting away from them.

READ MORE: The talking points from Leinster 50 Dragons 15

"Scoreboards are a pressure on the game, clocks are a pressure on the game," he said. "If you go too early what is probably a 25-10 game can flush out very quickly.

"There are four or five tries there today where we have tried to play a little bit too much into a face of something that we had not control of.

"If you haven't got control of it you are only going to increase your error rate. Watching us box kick at 70 minutes, when we are that far down, is not really a way of learning either.

"It is a balancing act and one that last week we were on top of (when beating Glasgow in Newport), this week we weren't. That is something for us to take forward."

Leinster followed fellow Irish provinces Munster and Connacht in beating the Dragons in rainy conditions, making light of their World Cup absentees.

"They showed their pedigree and that spell after half-time was too much for us," said Ryan.

"It doesn't matter whether their frontline guys are away, or their second team are playing, they all understand the script and are incredibly accurate.

"Our discipline hurt us a little bit and put us back on the line and suddenly the game has gone away, after being very competitive for 40 minutes.

"We've got to get better at conditions like today against the pressure of a side like today. Pressure can be speed of the opponent, the physicality of the opponent.

"Some of the things we were trying to do in front of that pressure today was always going to lead to inaccuracies.

'We've got to keep challenging ourselves to get better, we've got to challenge ourselves to get better in the environment that is difficult.

"We are having to play teams like Leinster and keep learning lessons from those experiences."

The Dragons take on Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Friday.