The England fly-half appeared as a second-half replacement in the 29-20 win at Welford Road to gain his first game-time since suffering a ruptured Achilles in the Heineken Cup semi-final against Cardiff Blues last May.
“It is just great to be running around and playing in the team with the guys again,” he said after coming through the final 20 minutes of the LV= Cup tie.
“I felt fine, I didn’t really think about the injury, you just get so involved in the game that you don’t have time to think about it. My lungs were burning a bit though.
“It has been frustrating being unable to play for six months. You know you are going to come back and there is always that light at the end of the tunnel, but there are those dark days when you think you’ve stood still and nothing is happening.
“Being around the squad and being with guys who have gone through similar injuries before helps because you can call on them.”
Flood kicked the final six points of the game from two penalties after tries by Jordan Crane and Anthony Allen, plus a penalty try, and eight points from Jeremy Staunton. He also went within a whisker of comeback try as a Dragons knock-on denied him possession from a break by Ben Youngs.
“It would have been nice to get the bonus point, but we will take the win,” he said. “It was a little bit frustrating at times, we made a few errors, but we’re happy to take the win and now we go back into the Guinness Premiership and look to move on.”
