Head coach Matt Sherratt still believes Cardiff can improve despite their impressive bonus point victory over Ospreys at Judgement Day X.
The Blue and Blacks ran in six tires to earn a 19-36 victory over their rivals, but had to rely on two late tries to seal the victory.
Ospreys fought back in the second-half to trail by just three points going into the final few minutes and Sherratt conceded that Cardiff could have been more disciplined and defensively aware in the second half.
“There’s little things actually that we probably could have done a little bit better when we were down to 14,” said Sherratt.
“Didn’t fill the front line as much, over chasing the game and probably obviously down on the scoreboard.
“I think we could have maybe pushed one of our backfield up and secured our front line, but defensively, we were pretty good.
“We defended a lot of multi-phase and I actually felt, without being disrespectful at all to the Ospreys, they were only going to score if they got in our 22.
“It didn’t work obviously, but we spoke a lot about discipline at half time and making sure that we didn’t give them entries and probably the opposite happened then.”
Sherratt praised wing hat-trick hero Gabe Hamer-Webb who also collected the Player of the Match award.
“Gabe has shown a fair bit of resilience since he’s been at the club. He was at Bath, went away to New Zealand to play some rugby, come to the club and straight away has settled in and had some really big moments in big games.
“I’m really happy for him, it’s not often you get hat-tricks. Gabe needs to enjoy that for the next couple of days.
He also singled out back row Alex Mann who had an ‘eventful’ game, scoring two tries and received a yellow card.
“It could be Manny’s middle name eventful. He’s into everything on and off the field.
“I knew again with Manny against the Ospreys I didn’t say it to him but he’s the type of character to see a Jac Morgan playing and he’s a competitor so that would give him an extra 10 % as well.
“I think you’ve seen his whole skill set over the last couple of weeks. Look at that left hand pass he made against Connacht and if that was a 10, that would be being replayed over and over again, high speed, left hand pass, 25 metres to Josh who didn’t break stride.
“And then this week you probably saw that more kind of physical and competitive edge. He’s some player Alex.
Cardiff remain in the Race to Eight and at the time of writing are sixth in the BKT United Rugby Championship Table.
Sherratt believes his men will want to put in a big performance on the final home game of the season against Munster on Friday night.
“For many reasons, the league table, but there’s also going to be obviously some personal reasons as well, some people’s last games together.
“The Arms Park is always a special place to play and I think we’ll definitely use that in the week to build the players up for Friday night.”
Sherratt is targeting a place in the playoffs, and says he was proud of their performance against Ospreys today, given recent events at the club.
“To be honest, I think it would be massive to reach the playoffs. It’s something that, again, I’ve probably not said publicly, but when I took the job, within three years, I said I would love to get us into a play-off or a knockout game and we’re in the fight aren’t we.
“Then there’s been a backdrop of quite a lot of negativity and lots of twists and turns over the last two years and I think it’s credit to the players, it would have been easy for them in the last two weeks to down tools.
“What I told the players before the game is they are the club and outwardly people will judge Cardiff rugby by watching the players on the field and if they can show the heart they’ve shown over last two years and the ambition they have for the ball, that’s what 90 % of people will judge Cardiff on, not the stuff off pitch.
“It’s important for the players to realise that they’re the perception of the club and credit to them they they’ve done themselves proud I thought today.