Head Coach Danny Wilson felt his Cardiff Blues deserved something for their endeavour as they lost out to table-topping Munster Rugby in a thrilling Guinness PRO12 encounter in Cork.
Cardiff Blues took a half-time lead at the Irish Independent Park after well-worked first half tries from Tavis Knoyle and Richard Smith.
Tom Isaacs added a third try early in the second half, but back came Munster and a powerful final quarter from the hosts saw them claim maximum points to move top of the tale and leave Cardiff Blues agonisingly short of any points.
Wilson said: “We’ve come away with nothing and I felt we deserved more given the hour’s rugby we played. But if I’m honest, we lost our shape and we lost our way against a good Munster team with 20 minutes to go.
“We got ourselves back within a point with 10 or 11 minutes to go and then they (Munster) have scored a good try to finish it off.
“We showed some naivety at times,” he added. “We are a young side at the moment and we are bringing on even more youngsters from the bench with the knock-on effect of boys being away at the World Cup.
“That showed late in the game, but credit to our boys they dug in, showed plenty of fighting spirit away from home and we are extremely disappointed we haven’t come away with anything.”
Cardiff Blues now complete a tour of the Irish provinces in the early weeks of the season with a clash against Ulster Rugby on Friday evening in Belfast.
“We have the end of the trips to the four Irish provinces to look forward to and then another away game after that against Zebre,” said Wilson.
“It is extremely hard on this group of players to play five away games on the bounce. It’s a tough place to be, but we will get on with it and will get those games back at home at the end of the season.
“Our attack at times against Munster was excellent as was our defence, but unfortunately we have a lot of bumps and bruises and nothing else to take from the game to show for it.
“We missed a few kicks early on in the game and credit to Munster because they took their opportunities.
“We were on the wrong side late on of a result and a bonus point which we felt was well within our grasp.”