Try-try hero Alex Cuthbert looked ahead to the European campaign with optimism after his brace saw Cardiff Blues defeat Edinburgh Rugby 29-12 at the Arms Park.
Wing Cuthbert followed up his sensational solo effort against Leinster last week with a double on home soil – and only the TMO saw him denied a hat-trick in the closing minutes.
Blues can now look forward to games with Exeter Chiefs and champions Toulon in the Heineken Cup as the focus moves away from the RaboDirect PRO12.
“From a personal perspective, it was nice to get two tries,” said Cuthbert after being awarded the man-of-the-match award.
“But more importantly as a team we got what we wanted – a win. Now hopefully this can kick-start us for the Heineken Cup next week.
“Both tries were well constructed and the second one seemed to go through everyone’s hands. It was good to be part of a team try and performance.
“I actually thought I had got the hat-trick, but the video referee thought otherwise. But the main aim was the win and performance.
“The first half was a little slower but in the second we came to the forefront, I thought the forwards worked really hard and gave us space to exploit.
“We showed a little bit last week against Leinster and we wanted to carry that on and build. I felt we did that.
“Hopefully we will now have a good training week going into the Exeter game,” he added.
“They have a good forward pack and talented backs, but we need to look at ourselves and what we can do.
“We feel that we can progress in Europe. We have shown in bits this season what we can do and hopefully if we can get that over 80 minutes we can move from the group. Within the squad we are tight and looking forward to the games coming up.”