Josh Adams has urged his side to continue to show their attacking instincts, as Cardiff Blues target back-to-back victories over Scarlets.
Jarrod Evans inspired a scintillating Cardiff Blues performance against the west Wales outfit at Cardiff City Stadium last time out, as tries from Tomos Williams, Rey Lee-Lo and Willis Halaholo secured the victory.
Adams expects a backlash from their Conference B rivals but hopes his side will play to their strengths once again.
“We desperately want to replicate parts of last week and I thought that last Saturday was a lot more like us,’’ said Adams.
“We had an ethos of not having any fear and playing what’s in front of us. You could see that from a couple of unexpected tap penalties from Tomos, and to be fair I don’t think I was expecting them either. I almost dropped the ball when he passed to me!
“That’s the way we like to play. We like to play quick, we like to play with our heads up and Jarrod just tore it up to be fair to him.
“When you give him speed of ball, front foot ball, I don’t think there’s anyone better at attacking the line that I’ve ever played with. He’s unbelievable.
“It can be quite frustrating at times because it’s blatantly obvious how good we can be. So it’s frustrating if we don’t back that up or stay true to our identity.
“Sometimes we go off-script and go out to not lose rather than go win and attack the opposition more.
“Don’t get me wrong, the conditions can affect that at times. You look at the Dragons game and I don’t think anyone enjoyed that, myself included.
“But hopefully we can carry off where we left off and we have a good opportunity to do the double over Scarlets.
“I’ve got no doubt that they will be coming out all guns blazing on Friday. They wouldn’t have taken that defeat well, and would’ve had a few stern words after that game.
“So we can expect a similar reaction to what they saw from us, considering everything that had happened the previous week, and we came out with a fast start, and we’re expecting the same from them.
“It’s about how we manage that and how we put our authority on the game with the ball.
“It’ll be vitally important and if we can, in some ways, replicate how we went about things, even though it wasn’t always perfect, then we’ll be in a great spot.”
Friday’s encounter will be Dai Young’s first in charge since he returned to Cardiff Arms Park as interim director of rugby last week.
Having faced Young’s Wasps side during his spell with Worcester Warriors, Adams is eager to see the influence of the former Cardiff, Wales and British & Irish Lions prop.
“Last week he wasn’t involved much with the on-field stuff as he was getting together the things he needed to find out and how the players work,” added the wing.
“He’s been away for a while and there’s been a lot of change since then so he needed to oversee things from the outside and see how we operate, how the sessions are ran and what our schedules are like.
“But this week, with a game on Friday, he’s already held meetings with us and when we head into training I’m sure he’ll be leading that. This is his first proper week with us as a rugby group, if you like.
“I hadn’t properly met him in person until he came down here last week, but what he’s done for Wasps “speaks for itself.
“He was there for around nine or ten years and achieved Champions Cup semi finals, Premiership finals and made them a consistent top four Premiership side for a number of years.
“He’s done a terrific job of leaving Wasps in a better place than it was when he arrived, and that’s carried on with how well they’re doing now.
“The work that he’s put in during his time there has been excellent. They were always a tough team to play against when I faced them with Worcester.
“I’m sure Dai would’ve had a massive say in how Wasps went about playing, while they obviously also had coaches like Lee Blackett, who has carried that philosophy over.
“They’ve been playing some great stuff, and hopefully that’s the way he wants to go about things - really encouraging us to express ourselves, play with no fear and play to our strengths.
“Our strength is with the ball, and when we challenge teams like that we’ve got some great players who have got x factor all over the park, and that’s where we cause teams problems.
“I’m pretty sure that’s the way we’ll go about things.”