We have to respond with a win – Mulvihill

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John Mulvihill insists Cardiff Blues must bounce back with nothing but a win after they slipped to a second agonising defeat at the death.

It appeared as though they would grind out a hard fought win after Gareth Anscombe slotted three unanswered second-half penalties to lead by eight points.

But a fiercely competitive Benetton outfit, who kicked off their season with a victory over the Dragons, fought back with a penalty of their own and an injury time try.

They still needed to convert and to the delight of the partisan Treviso crowd Tommasso Allen obliged from the touchline.

The loss compounded Mulvihill’s woes following similar agony against Leinster last week and he knows they have to respond against Zebre next Saturday.

He said: “It’s a defeat that is very hard for us to take and it’s going to take us a few days to get over it. We are here for a week and next week is vitally important for us because we can’t repeat what happened last year. We have to win next week.

“There was a little bit of indiscipline in the first half, they had five penalties in a row and worked themselves up the field. In that last passage of play we gave away that penalty on half way and the next six penalties went their way. We didn’t control the ball in crucial areas of the game.

“We had two disallowed tries where they were very quick to go to TMO and make a decision but at the end of the day we just weren’t good enough. If we put ourselves in front in games, we have to win and that’s all there is to it.

“We will take a really hard look at ourselves over the weekend, the boys will come back to training on Monday and they are determined to put those last two games right.

“I wouldn’t park it too quickly, they need to internalise that, they need to go through it and it needs to be with them all the way until kick-off next week because we don’t want that feeling in the dressing room again for a long time to come.”

The Blues will remain in Italy this week as they prepare for the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi clash. They then return to Cardiff to take on Munster at the Arms Park on Friday, September 21 (7.35pm) with tickets available now.

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