Director of Rugby Mark Hammett praised his Cardiff Blues as they defeated London Irish 24-14 in the European Rugby Challenge Cup – but warned the job was only half done ahead of the second part of a crunch double-header.

Richard Smith, Lloyd Williams and Kristian Dacey crossed for Blues as they produced the goods when it mattered with a powerful second half show to pull away.

The result moved Blues to the top of Pool 1 as the Exiles left BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park empty-handed.

However, Hammer was refusing to get carried away by the result and warned the task now was to back it up at the Madejski Stadium next weekend in Reading.

“Nothing really matters until next weekend,” he said. “It’s nice to have got that win and nice to have at least played the patterns we wanted if not always executed it. Some individuals really stepped up their performances.

“It’s half the job done and nothing more. London Irish know how hard it is to travel here and I imagine it will be exactly the same the other way around.

“If we can bring the same energy next weekend then that will be a positive. It’s the first time we have played against London Irish and we will regroup and see where we can make changes to our game plan.”

Hammer also praised the way his Blues continued to battle away in the second half after Gethin Jenkins had a try disallowed after a sustained period of pressure.

“We were up and had spent a lot of time on the attack and unfortunately hadn’t achieved the seven-pointer which would have eased it,” he added.

“We had the disallowed try and then a scrum, penalty and break out by them; it was a nervous time but came back and scored a good try in the corner.

“While I was not completely happy with the clarity and understanding of our game plan, we went out and played with real energy.

“This will be good for us in the long term. You always learn more when you have got to go through adversity and really battle to get points rather than when they come easy. As a team we will be better for it.”