Blaine Scully insists Cardiff Blues can take confidence from Saturday's performance at Welford Road.
The USA international returned to face his former club, Leicester Tigers, as captain of a young Cardiff Blues side, who showed plenty of fight and determination against the defending Anglo-Welsh Cup champions.
The hosts led 17-0 at the interval, but Wales’ Capital Region struck back with second half tries from Jack Roberts and Lewis Jones to close the gap to five points.
However, former Cardiff Blues back row, Luke Hamilton, would cross the whitewash to deliver a decisive blow, as Tigers maintained their unbeaten run in the competition.
Scully believes it’s important to take positives from Saturday’s defeat, as they look ahead to Friday’s home clash against London Irish.
“I think we can take a lot of confidence, especially out of the second half performance,” said Scully.
“We put ourselves under a little bit of pressure during the first half due to a little bit of indiscipline, but what struck me was the commitment and the desire shown to play for the full 80 minutes. I thought that was really positive.
“Every moment is an opportunity to learn and that’s what we really wanted to gain from this experience.
“We wanted to do ourselves justice and have a performance we can be proud of but now it’s about moving forward to the next one and getting better.
“It was a really cool personal experience for me, to come back to Welford Road, where it all began, and lead a competitive Cardiff Blues side out here was a fantastic experience.
“But most of all it’s about the team, so how I can help this team is where my mind goes and what I try to emphasise on.”
Scully heads off for international duty with the USA Eagles squad on Sunday, as they prepare for the Americas Rugby Championship, where they take on Argentina in the opening fixture.
New head coach, Gary Gold, takes charge of the side and has appointed the Cardiff Blues wing as captain, as the Eagles will be looking to defend their ARC title.
Scully hopes the next few weeks will give USA an opportunity to build a platform ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
Scully said: “We want to integrate as a team as quickly as we can and do everything we can to support each other.
"We’ll be ready for a couple of performances to kick off the ARC against Argentina and Canada and we’ll do the best we can to improve each week.
“It’s about building cohesiveness as an unit as we start looking towards 2019 in Japan.
"It’s about getting better as a team and focusing on the first moment, which is going to be that opening match.
“We won’t look past that and take each moment as it comes and use it as an opportunity to build.”