Gruff Rees hopes his side’s “sequel” can top their opening performance in the Heineken Champions Cup, as the European campaign continues against Harlequins on Saturday (KO 1.00pm).
The Blue and Blacks are still unable to call upon those who were forced to quarantine following the recent trip to South Africa, while Iestyn Harris (shoulder) and Jacob Beetham (suspension) add to the list of absentees.
However, Rees will welcome Rey Lee-Lo back into contention after the Samoan international served his suspension after a red card against Dragons in October.
After an admirable performance against holders Toulouse, Rees has challenged his side to match their monumental effort when they take on the English champions at Twickenham Stoop.
“Last week, the adrenaline of knowing what was to come in terms of a home game against the European champions was an easy sell in the team room and creating a mindset of the misfits,” said Rees.
“But to do it again gets motivationally harder. We need to look a little bit differently at it.
“Especially from my end, having been away from the pro stuff, you don’t quite realise how accomplished Harlequins are around the basics, the contact area as well as the pace and panache of the way they play.
“We’ll use some of that to lever us in the background in terms of being across certain levels of detail.
“Defensively there are a couple of tweaks there, but we can use this game as another exciting one because they’re the English champions.
“Hopefully the sequel can be better than the original.
“Our biggest review theme as staff and players is following up what was a monumental effort. You look at the GPS numbers and the averages were far and above other games this season, and some players have never got to those levels.
“It was an astronomical effort in terms of where they’re at and we’ve spoke a lot about how we can back that up.
“We can help a lot as coaches and staff, with de-loading certain things and not over-do other stuff, but we try to fit that into the big picture of the game we do want to play.
“We do think it’s right when it opens up, in terms of what we do have on the field, but we also need to be smart in how we get to that point.
“Individually, every player will do what they can to recover properly tomorrow and we’ll see mostly the same group of players going again.”
There was also an opportunity for the former Ospreys coach to reflect on a fantastic day down Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday.
And while the Blue and Blacks were unable to overturn the defending champions, Rees believes the atmosphere and performance will live long in the memory for those in attendance.
“It was a good old day for the club and we acknowledged how proud we were on Saturday,” explained the academy manager, who takes charge in the absence of Dai Young.
“There were so many different positive things going on, both on and off the field, which was great to see in terms of the Arms Park faithful.
“We wanted to put something on that everyone could be proud of and since then the professional coaching instincts kick in.
“Sunday was about getting back to the drawing board in terms of both the learnings from that game and also the stress to go again this week and put things together there.
“When you look at Harlequins in depth, they’re obviously regarded as a fantastic ball-playing side but you see how good they are in other areas like the scrum and line-out.
“I did try to enjoy it, and when I was walking into the stadium I hadn’t thought about it too much up to that point.
“But walking into the Arms Park, I was representing a club I’d grown up watching. I used to come here with my Dad in the 1980s and my heroes were Mark Ring, Terry Holmes, Gareth Davies and that did kick in a little bit.
“But then I did my team talk and from then I wanted to enjoy the day.
“As long as we were ok around the set piece, and we hung in there, that was fine. I made a commitment to myself that I wanted to enjoy the rugby.
“I was trying to divorce some of the emotion and buy into looking around the ground and savouring that.”