Cardiff Blues must learn to turn defence into attack insists Kristian Dacey, following Sunday's defeat to Glasgow Warriors.
The hooker crossed for his side's only try of the game in Rodney Parade, but it wasn't enough as a series of penalties and a late Huw Jones try sealed the four points for the Scottish outfit.
Dacey says there will be a thorough review of the opening block of fixtures, as Wales' Capital Region look to kick-start their campaign with crucial Challenge Cup and festive derbies fixtures on the horizon.
“We spoke at half time about the need to tighten up in the contact area but in the second half we conceded key turnovers in key areas,” said the Welsh international.
“We need to go back and review that individually and see where we can get better.
“We’ve gone out there and made over 200 tackles again this week so we need to look at our game and see where we can turn those tackles into attack.
“We want to have the ball in our hands a bit more than we have recently and we need to go back and look at the little bits where we can improve attack-wise, stop making those errors and defending so much.
“We felt like we were in a good place and threw some good attacking shape but, as I said, key turnovers in key areas led to us conceding penalties here and not being able to capitalise at the other end of the field.
“If you look at the losses, we’ve put in some decent performances, especially defensively. But it’s about learning and taking those from the games.
“We spoke as players there, and it feels like we haven’t learned from our errors over the last couple of weeks. There’s two weeks now until we play Newcastle in Europe, so we really need to learn lessons from this game and see where we can get better.”
By the time Cardiff Blues take on Newcastle Falcons in Europe in two weeks time, Wales’ Autumn Nations Cup campaign will have come to an end, meaning a number of senior international stars will return to John Mulvihill’s squad.
Dacey will welcome the return of their experience into the squad, but has been impressed with some of the younger players who have stepped up in their absence.
“We have boys with a lot of quality to come back, and I’m sure they’ll slip straight back in,” added the hooker.
“But there’s boys here over the last three or four weeks who have had opportunities and have taken those opportunities at times.
“It’s about building strength in depth and giving boys the exposure that’s needed at this level.
“We’ll bring them back, learn from them and see where we can go as a team.”