Heading into this weekend’s BKT United Rugby Championship match against Edinburgh at Hive Stadium, head coach matt Sherratt expressed his disappointment at Saturday's loss to Scarlets at the Arms Park.
Sherratt put the defeat down to a mixed opening 20 minutes, which set the tone for the game and a couple of missed opportunities.
“I'm pretty disappointed if I'm honest,” said Sherratt. “Last weekend, I thought it was a game that we, I wouldn't say we should have won, but definitely could have won.
“We didn’t start well, so the first 20 minutes, and a lot of credit for that has to go to Scarlets, but we didn't enable ourselves to put our fingerprints on the game.
“It wasn’t one thing, just four or five unforced errors back to back, and it just gave them a lot of momentum.
“It’s easy to look at the end of the game, with Gabe's foot in touch and a ball bouncing off Johnny Williams' head and a couple of other little things.
“But I think the first 20 minutes of the game wasn’t how we wanted to start really. We’re pretty disappointed as a whole.
“Obviously as a coach, it’s my job to get the players ready, so it’s not just on the players, but as a group we were pretty disappointed.”
Looking forward, Cardiff will face Edinburgh, a team that has had a challenging start to the season.
Sherratt recognised the difficulty of Edinburgh’s recent schedule, which included a game against Leinster and a challenging trip to South Africa.
He expects the Scottish side to pose a tough test, emphasising that they remain a tough opponent and played well at the Arms Park last season.
“They had Leinster and then a trip away to South Africa,” added Sherratt.
“They had a really good win against the Stormers, which was probably a reaction after a little bit of criticism for the Lions performance.
“But I've been to South Africa. They've gone to Bulls and been very competitive for large parts of that game, and then to back that up at altitude with the Lions is tough.
“Edinburgh are a good side. They came here last year and were very physical, they do the basics very well.
“We're not putting anything on their start to the season. As I said, it doesn’t get much tougher than Leinster and the South African teams away.”