John Mulvihill is hoping his side can pick up where they left off as they prepare for the Guinness PRO14 curtain raiser against Zebre on Friday.
Cardiff Blues head into the encounter after the 2019/20 campaign came to an end with an impressive win over Ospreys at Rodney Parade.
The head coach insists he will pick his side based on form as Wales’ Capital Region target consistency in their game this season.
“I’m hopeful that we can take the form that we had against Ospreys into game one and certainly the selection of the team will see boys that played well that day, who might not be our front-liners, being on the team sheet against Zebre,” said Mulvihill.
“We need to pick on form if we want to be consistent as a group. The coaches need to show consistency in picking players that put their hands up for selection.
“Our goal this year is to be as consistent as we can be - both in the building and outside, on the pitch and off.
“We want to make sure that we continue to work at the best rate that we can to make sure that we get there every week.
“The final two games of the season was a little bit of a mini pre-season and we had two tough games.
“We learnt a lot from those, particularly our first game against Scarlets, and we could then focus and narrow down to get our preparations right for this week.
“It was really good, in a way, and if we were to have pre-seasons as usual again, then I’m sure a lot of clubs would have some games early and then work towards their first competitive game, rather than having trial matches towards the end.”
Following the pandemic, Zebre will be able to open its doors and welcome 1,000 supporters to Stadio Lanfranchi for the season opener.
Mulvihill is excited at the prospect of playing in front of supporters once again, but is wary of the danger posed by the Italian outfit when the match kicks off.
The head coach added: “In the last two games, we watched Zebre beating Benetton comfortably and then to lose narrowly.
“They’re a team who, particularly with all their internationals and Carlo Canna in the side, play really attacking rugby that can hurt you.
“They play particularly well on their home ground so we’re expecting an end-to-end contest. They’ll want to make it as quick as possible.
“We all have the memories of my first trip to Italy a couple of years ago, where we were beaten in the 78th and 79th minute two weeks in a row.
“So we know what they bring and we need to make sure that we’re really structured in what we do, both in defence and attack.
“It will be absolutely fantastic. I’m sure the Zebre boys will get up in front of their home crowd.
“We’ll be coming up against a pretty fierce atmosphere and that will bring the best out of us.”