John Mulvihill was thrilled with Cardiff Blues’ “outstanding” first-half performance as they racked up a five-try, bonus-point victory over the Scarlets.
The West Walian outfit were dead and buried at the interval thanks to braces from Owen Lane and Aled Summerhill plus a try from Josh Turnbull.
Gareth Anscombe added 13-points with the boot in the dominant first-half before the Scarlets battled back in vein.
Mulvihill said: “The first half was outstanding considering there were a few early jitters. I had this feeling all week that it was either going to be really tight or we would blow them off the park.
“I knew with the way we have so many attacking threats that if we use the ball properly and get a good stream of lineout ball, we would be hard to stop.
“This is what this team is about. We could have kicked the ball out after the 42 minute and gone in for half-time but we went for the try and a kick-pass to the side. It was a pretty complete first half.”
The bonus-point victory was not enough to leapfrog Connacht, who secured a maximum-points haul of their own and both teams continue to battle for third place.
With fixtures against Munster, Connacht and Ospreys to come, destiny is in the Blues’ hands and Mulvihill believes it will all come down to the clash in Galway.
He added: “The first thing I wanted was a team that can be number one in Wales, we’ve done the double over the Scarlets and Dragons and now we need to beat the Ospreys at home.
“Our second thing as a group is to play finals rugby and be better than last season where we finished fourth. For us to finish third would justify the improvements we have mad.
“We always knew that three from four wins would get us there and now we have three to play.
“Connacht won with the last few minutes to get their bonus-point and they are probably four or so points above us on points difference. That’s how close it is but that shows how good this competition is.
“Destiny is in our hands and we will just worry about what we can do and not Connacht. They have a few tough games, so do we and it will probably come down to how we go in Galway.”