Josh Turnbull says it was too little too late from Cardiff Blues during their Guinness PRO14 defeat to Ulster on Friday.
The hosts led 17-0 at the break thanks to early tries from Luke Marshall and Billy Burns, but Wales’ Capital Region showed their character in the second half to battle back into proceedings.
Aled Summerhill and Will Boyde crossed the whitewash, but three penalties from the reliable boot of John Cooney ensured the Blues came back from Belfast empty handed.
Welsh international, Turnbull, says his side were frustrated with their handling errors during the opening 40 minutes as they left it too late to bounce back for a win.
The utility forward said: “There’s a lot of things from that game that we need to work on.
“Like Nick alluded to in the changing room after the game, we probably showed the best of our attack and the worst of our attack out there, and the same goes for our defence.
“In the first half, we couldn’t keep hold of the ball at times.
“We had opportunities with driving line-outs down in the bottom corner, but didn’t come away with anything.
“To be 17-point down at half time and try to come back from that, we showed some good stuff during the second half but not enough of it.
“We probably need to keep hold of possession better, especially when you look back at the first half where we had quite a few knock ons and lost possession in the contact area.
“Ulster have Peely [Dwayne Peel] as their attack coach and they really come alive on the counter attack straight after they get the ball. They’re similar to us in wanting to play the ball in the hands.
“Physically I thought we matched them well but we need to up it again over the next couple of weeks.”
Next up for John Mulvihill’s men is back-to-back home fixtures against the in-form sides, Munster and Toyota Cheetahs.
Turnbull admits the double-header will test his side’s character but is confident the group will rally together as they aim to get back to winning ways.
Turnbull added: “It doesn’t get any easier with Munster next weekend, and Cheetahs the weekend after.
“We’ve got a really young, tight group of boys here but we’ll need to pull together next week.
“We’ve got to roll with the fixture schedule, but as a tight group of boys we’ll get back on the paddock this week and try to right those wrongs.”