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We must concentrate on our own progress - Sherratt

19th February 2017


Matt Sherratt insists Cardiff Blues must concentrate on their own progress, following Saturday's 57-20 victory over Benetton Treviso in the Guinness PRO12.

Danny Wilson’s men bounced back from last week’s home defeat to Connacht with eight tries, and will now prepare for a visit to Edinburgh on Friday.

The Cardiff Blues' backs coach also praised the side’s ball carriers and strike runners, paying particular attention to Nick Williams, Alex Cuthbert and Matthew Morgan. 

“Obviously it’s a much happier changing room than last week and we need to enjoy our victories, but we need to get a bit better every time we get on the training field and that will give us confidence. Edinburgh next week will be a different game altogether,” said Sherratt.

“Last week against Connacht we weren’t the worst team in the league, and this week, after Treviso, we aren’t the best team in the league. We don’t need to worry about the league table or the other teams. 

“We need to, each week, train as well as we can, play as well as we can and see where we end up.

“We have to worry about what we’re good at. In Nick Williams, Alex Cuthbert, Josh Navidi, we’ve got some really good PRO12 ball carriers, so we need to get them on the ball as much we can.

“In the backline, we’ve got players like Willis Halaholo, Matthew Morgan, Rey Lee-Lo - players who can really hurt teams on their day and rather than worry about what other teams do, and their tactics, we just need to play a brand of rugby that suits us. The second half showed that.”

Cardiff Blues ran in six second half tries at BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park, and Sherratt said his side had to adjust their tactics to counter the Italian side’s stern defence.

“Italian teams have always got a lot of passion and will stick in but you hope your quality comes through in the end.

“Just before half time, the players solved the problem themselves, so we played a little bit differently in that last attacking set and just continued with that. 

“We moved the point of contact a lttile bit as we were playing off our nine to forwards too often in the first half, and they were ganging up and slowing the breakdown. We tried to share it around and play off Gareth Anscombe a bit more.”