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Mulvihill praises Cardiff Blues character in bonus point win

First Team News | 23rd February 2020


John Mulvihill was pleased with his side's character as they battled back from a half time deficit to claim a bonus point win over Benetton Rugby on Sunday.

Despite trailing by 7-19 at half time, Cardiff Blues crossed for five tries to ensure a Guinness PRO14 double over the Italian outfit.

Mulvihill was delighted to see his side revert to their playing identity in the second half and praised the way they bounced back following last week's defeat to Connacht.

"In the second half we got back to playing the way we’d prepared during the week," said the head coach.

"There were a lot of uncontested kicks in the first half and we gave away too many penalties.

"There was a massive turnaround after the break because we got back to doing what we’re good at.

"I’ve been around for long enough to know that you check the scoreboard after 80 minutes. 

"You just have to hang on sometimes, and we hung on really well in that game. The messages were really brief at half time.

"We put them under a lot of pressure, but to be fair to Benetton, they are missing a lot of international players and haven’t played for five weeks.

"We knew that if we kept tempo in the game, that would be good and they ran out of steam towards the end and we got to where we needed to be.

"The performance was massive, especially when you compare it to the effort last week. The effort scores were brilliant and the boys really wanted it. 

"You have to win your home games and you have to win your games when you’re playing teams from the same Conference. That’s why last week was disappointing against Connacht but we get them in a few weeks time at home."

Next up for Mulvihill's men is a trip to the Scottish capital to take on Conference B leaders, Edinburgh.

The head coach is looking forward to the challenge at BT Murrayfield and believes his side can take confidence from last season's stunning win against the Scottish outfit.

"Edinburgh are a very good team, and a lot of teams who go up there at the moment come away with 40 or 50 points put on them," added the Australian.

"We can take confidence from the match we won up there last year.

"Both teams will be under strength, but they’ve recruited well and they have some very good international-quality players.

"We’ll come up with a simple game plan and execute that up there and see what happens.

"We do a lot of research on how teams play and how we can break them down, and Benetton came here using a blitz defence, which they don’t usually do. 

"That put pressure on us and it took a bit of time to change the way we played.

"We’ll now look at how Edinburgh have done over the last few weeks and come up with a game plan for that.

"But we’ll go on the road with a bonus point victory under our belt so we’re looking forward to the challenge.

"They’ve got good players like van der Walt at 10, Bill Mata at number eight and van der Merwe on the wing.

"They have a core of really good players who are not affected by the international window, so they’ll step up and enjoy playing at home, but we also enjoy playing up there as well."