Director of Rugby Mark Hammett called on his Cardiff Blues to restore some pride and demanded they raise the intensity levels after derby day defeat to Newport Gwent Dragons at a rain-lashed BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park.
Second half tries from Jarrad Hoeata and Tavis Knoyle had threatened a late comeback from Cardiff Blues in the Guinness PRO12 encounter.
However, Hammett was pulling no punches over his opinion of the first half display from his team.
And he vowed to leave no stone unturned in the coming six days to get the right response when Blues travel to Rodney Parade on New Year’s Day for the second part of a derby double-header with Dragons.
He said: “We talked ahead of the game about attitude often being the thing that wins these derby matches. Without a doubt, they collectively turned up with more intensity to their game.
“In the second half, when we got it right, we were a danger. But when you are chasing down 17 points it is difficult. We nearly got there but we didn’t.
“You can talk about playing with the right attitude all you want. But it’s a personal thing and you need to roll your sleeves up.
“It’s a down group of players in the dressing room right now, as we should be. However, we’ve got a game in six days back at their place to be better.
“We need to do ourselves a lot more proud than we did this week,” he added.
“If the first half against Scarlets was the best half we have played, well, I think that first half was our worst.
“From a fix perspective, it is very much about individuals and we will manage that this week.
“There was a bit of a bark at half-time to the players. The group of forwards then started to get from A to B with some intensity and hit rucks and mauls. As a group we lifted to where we should have been from the start.
“We don’t have a lot of time before the next game; both teams are in the same boat. We will have a good look at their game and see where they attacked us and created errors and look to put that right.”