The Dragons have qualified for the quarter finals twice in the last three years but finish the group stages on Saturday knowing their progress is in the lap of the rugby gods.
Victory in the return match against Bordeaux-Begles who triumphed 36-28 when the sides met at the Stade Chaban-Delmas last Saturday may not be enough with the qualification picture a complex one and Bordeaux in prime position to claim one of three best runners up spots.
“Bordeaux have a chance of qualifying and are going to go after it," said Jackman after Saturday's defeat. However, the former Ireland hooker explained there was no shortage of motivation this weekend coming.
"I’ve spoken to the players about it being a cup final without any big reward except a win, but that’s enough because we want that win and are craving it,” he added.
“We are going to treat it as though if we win we qualify, that’s how important it is to get a performance for our fans to show that we are on the right track.”
The injury-hit Dragons suffered defeat but their spirited performance showed substantial improvement after going down to the Scarlets in the first match of 2018.
“I’m disappointed but proud,” said Jackman. “Disappointed we didn’t get the win because it was achievable, when we look back over the 80 minutes there were moments that we could’ve executed better that would have won the game for us.
“But having said that with situation we are in with injuries and how poor the performance was against the Scarlets, the players responded really well with a big shift.
“We changed our defensive system a little bit and got a lot more line speed, we were aggressive, our lineout was very good and our scrum was decent.
“I’m proud of the effort and the players showed really good character.
“We knew that the performance was going to be better because of the way that they trained and responded to the criticism of the review on Monday. That led to the performance and now we’ve got to get the win next weekend with the same players.”
Back row forward Harri Keddie and full-back Zane Kirchner are both very close to returns from shoulder injury but cannot feature this weekend because they are not registered for Europe.
Flanker Ollie Griffiths and centre Tyler Morgan (both ankle) should be back for the return of the Guinness PRO14 on February 9 against Glasgow.
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