After guiding his side to a bonus point win over Scarlets on Saturday, Jarrod Evans was full of positivity, but insists Cardiff Blues must remain focused for the full 80 minutes.
The playmaker crossed for the game’s opening try in Llanelli, and also played a key role in the build-up to Cory Hill and Hallam Amos’ first half scores.
However, despite the visitors securing the bonus point in the early stages of the second half, hosts Scarlets mounted a remarkable comeback to take the lead in the final 10 minutes.
However, a late penalty from Guinness Player of the Match Evans secured a dramatic narrow winy at Parc y Scarlets, making it a hat-trick of Cardiff Blues victories over the Llanelli outfit this season.
Speaking on Premier Sports, the outside half knew his side would come up against a highly motivated Scarlets outfit but believed there there was a lot of positivity about Cardiff’s performance.
The Welsh international said: “There was an element of everything about Scarlets’ motivations this week, with the news of their coach and how the derbies went around Christmas. It’s exactly what we spoke about.
“We knew they’d come out with a point to prove and that the emotions would really take over.
“We saw more of it in the second half with the wind behind them, however for large parts we dominated but just switched off at vital times.
“A theme of ours heading into reviews is that we do a lot of positive things but switch off at crucial times.
“Similar to last week, the character and effort is something we couldn’t fault, but we went down to 13 men at one point and found ourselves with our backs against the wall.
“Scarlets had us under the pump for the last 10 minutes and we need to make sure we’re switched on at those times because that’s the difference between the good and the best teams.
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind year where you have a run of games at one point and then don’t play at all for a few weeks.
“But that’s a part of being a professional rugby player. You need to react as best as you can and your club form will always take care of any higher honours.”
Another player who registered on the scoresheet was Josh Turnbull, who crashed over after the break to secure a bonus point.
The captain, who was named Player of the Match in the victory over Dragons a week previously, believes his side are developing a good habit of securing victories in tight contests.
The forward added: “We knew that reaction was coming. We’ve been in situations like that before where we’ve come down here, put a big score on in the first half but they’ve come back out strong in the second half.
“They responded and, maybe it was a little bit too late for them, but they really put some pressure on us in that last 10 minutes.
“When we lost against Connacht and Munster earlier in the season, we really took learnings from that on how to close a game out and the last two weeks has really shown that.”