Josh Turnbull has called on Cardiff Blues to bounce back against Munster after a lack of accuracy ad discipline at key moments proved costly in Connacht.
Wales’ Capital Region enjoyed a hugely impressive 30 minutes at the Sportsground but two defensive lapses in five minutes saw the hard work undone as Connacht took control of the encounter with quick-fire tries.
Cardiff did respond with a second try after the break but that lack of killer instinct at key moments ensured the comeback was short lived and Connacht added two further, controversial, tries in the closing stages.
Turnbull said: “In the first 30 minutes we were excellent, we played in the right areas of the field, caused them some problems and kept the scoreboard ticking over.
“But 10 minutes before half-time, a few errors from ourselves allowed them to get back in the game and they scored two quite quick tries and we were on the back foot.
“In the second half we came out and tried to control the game again but that middle third of the field management, errors cost us and discipline - 16 turnovers, 12 penalties. We can’t give teams those cheap kind of outs.
“It’s hard work when you’re defending for multiple phases, we would rather keep the ball in hand. We were really good in attack, we caused them problems when we were going through phases and we just have to keep working on that in the next few weeks.”
Cardiff Blues face Munster at the Arms Park on Friday and are now in a battle to secure outright Champions Cup rugby in Conference B.
With Munster and Connacht clear in second and third, it appears a shootout between the capital city charges and the Scarlets for third.
And Turnbull knows it is another enormous encounter to keep his side’s hopes alive.
He added: “There’s nothing we can do about the result now. We have to move forward, keep working hard and make sure we’re ready for a big Munster game.
“It’s massive for us. It’s a another game during the Six Nations period which is going to be key for us , we’ll have to rock up Monday with a clear focus on what we want out of next Friday at the Arms Park.
“We’re in a pretty strong position at the moment with the boys we have in the squad. It’s good to see the youngsters starting to step up, we have a really strong foundation in the squad and hopefully we can step up next week.”