Director of Rugby Phil Davies admitted Munster had punished every mistake Cardiff Blues gifted them as his side slipped to a 31-10 defeat the Arms Park.

Blues returned to RaboDirect PRO12 action against the league leaders on an ice cold night in the capital.

But despite a try from hooker Kristian Dacey – his second in two weeks – the Blues slipped to defeat as Munster powered ahead in the first half to claim a try bonus win.

“We were well beaten,” admitted Davies. “The second half we did show some resilience out on the pitch; that was reflected in the final score line.

“You couldn’t fault the effort, but we made too many fundamental errors throughout the course of the middle and end of the first half. With a team like Munster you can’t gift them opportunities and that was the tale of it.

“We started well but gifted them too many chances. We went in at half-time and talked about what we needed to do. We delivered that and got some credibility back.

“We have players away and missing, but we expect better of ourselves,” he added.

“This group has been working hard the last few weeks and we have had three games. We have won two against a strong Treviso team and the boys played with a lot of passion last week at the Liberty.

“We knew this would be a step up for us, we felt we had identified areas in the game where we could capitalise and put pressure on them.

“We did that for 15 minutes at the start of the game and for certain periods in the second half. But we gifted them opportunities and they are too good a team not to take them.

Blues were also dealt fresh injury worries with back row Andries Pretorius hobbling off in the second half and Gavin Evans replaced at the break.

“Andries has come down on his ankle awkwardly. It’s pretty sore,” revealed Davies.

“Gavin has a dead leg and was suffering a bit before the game. Sometimes you can play through it, but he had a direct impact on it and we had to take him off.”