Owen Lane was left bitterly disappointed as Cardiff Blues failed to complete a stunning European Challenge Cup comeback against Pau.
The Blues were left staring down the barrel 31-7 early in the second-half despite Lane grabbing the first try of the game at Stade du Hameau.
But they staged a remarkable comeback, which left the partisan home crowd incensed, with Hallam Amos finishing a fine team play on the left before Lane struck for two more.
It appeared as though Wales’ Capital Region would snatch the spoils as they pressed in the final 10 minutes, but the ball was lost and Pau went on to slot a late penalty to put the result beyond doubt.
Lane said: “It’s tricky to reflect on your personal performance when we get a result like that. It is a bitter pill to swallow.
“Lloydy probably gifted me one out there and Turnbull did the hard work for the other one. Obviously, I’m chuffed to get the tries but as a team we are gutted with that. We definitely wanted to come away with the win.
“We had one try early on, which is where Turnbull set me up and then the rest of the half really cost us. We didn’t fire any shots, we didn’t get into any phase play or shape. We probably played in the wrong areas of the field and fed into their game.
“But I always had confidence in us as a team and I knew we could score tries. As soon as we started playing our game and throwing our phase-play and shape at them we were causing them issues. It is just really disappointing that it took us 60 minutes to do that.
“I definitely had that belief and the team had that belief, we 100 per cent thought we were going to win that game but there were a couple of individual errors like the penalty I gave away, which slowed the momentum down and eventually we couldn’t close it out.”
A penalty at the death from Jason Tovey ensured the Blues left the Pyrenees with two bonus-points, which could be crucial in the fight for a quarter-final place.
They are now five points behind Leicester Tigers in Pool Five with a trip to Welford Road and then a clash with Calvisano to come in January and Lane remains confident.
He added: “We can still progress and it’s definitely going to be a tough route now. We came out here for the four points but took a losing bonus-point, so we are quite disappointed. We definitely thought we could win the game and we didn’t deliver.”
Cardiff Blues now switch their attention to the Guinness PRO14 with three consecutive Welsh derbies over the festive season beginning with the Ospreys on December 21. They then take on the Dragons (Dec 26) and the Scarlets (Jan 3) at Cardiff Arms Park with tickets available by clicking here.