John Mulvihill offered no excuses as Cardiff Blues lost a third Guinness PRO14 encounter in the final minutes.

Following last gasp defeats to Leinster and Benetton Rugby, the Blues made a flying start against Zebre at Stadio Lanfranchi.

They raced into a 21-0 lead thanks to tries from Olly Robinson, Kristian Dacey and Gareth Anscombe but were unable to close it out as Zebre responded with four tries of their own.

It was another bitter pill to swallow for Wales’ Capital Region and Mulvihill admits the performance simply was not good enough.

He said: “To say it is disappointing is an understatement.

“To lead and play as well as we did early and then to lose our shape and make so many fundamental errors towards the end of the game is really disappointing for everyone.

“Not just for players, coaches and staff but for all of our supporters who deserve better than they are getting at the moment.

“We are not an 80-minute team at the moment and haven’t been for the last few weeks and that’s something we need to find.

“We made really costly, basic errors and four penalties on the bounce in the last 15 minutes put us under enormous pressure and they played well to seize those opportunities.

“We need to go back to review this, the detail we are missing and make sure we bring that next week because it’s going to be a massive task to play against a team like Munster at home.

“There are no excuses, we have to aim up and we have to do it for 80 minutes not 78 minutes like we’ve done over these last weeks.”

Cardiff Blues take on Munster at Cardiff Arms Park on Friday, September 21 (7.35pm). Tickets are available now and can be purchased by clicking here or calling 029 20 302030.