John Mulvihill says it was a joy to watch his side during their emphatic Challenge Cup victory over Pau on Saturday.
Cardiff Blues crossed for eight tries as they secured a 54-22 win and played scintillating rugby in the process, with the likes of Ben Thomas, Josh Adams, Tomos Williams and Olly Robinson impressing.
Mulvihill, who also praised the hard graft of his forwards pack, says his side will be looking to carry momentum ahead of next week’s return fixture in France.
“For parts of the game, I stepped back, smiled and thought ‘this is the way we need to be playing’.
“When you get everyone back, and you’re playing the style of rugby that you want, it’s nice to watch.
“We’ve got a few boys who can step in and out of the backline as well and when you leave guys like Lloyd Williams, Jason Tovey and Hallam Amos on the bench, it shows you’ve got a bit of depth in that area.
“To the credit of our forward pack, we struggled a little bit at scrum and line-outs last year, but the scrum is probably the best in our league and it held its own once again. Our line-out has also gone from strength to strength.
“If our forwards understand that their job is to give the ball to the backs, it makes it a little bit easier.
“We’ll take that momentum into next week and that’s four wins out of the last five games for us. We need to keep control of what we can.
“We’re excited to go out to Pau and we’re sure they’ll change their team up a little bit. But they’ve got a massive game against Stade Francais the following week and the Top 14 is huge for any French club.
“We might see a few All Blacks involved next week who will get minutes to be ready for the following week.”
Mulvihill was also full of praise for Rugby World Cup top try scorer Adams, who dotted down for a hat-trick on his Cardiff Blues debut.
“Josh is really good. We’ve had opportunities like that this year that we haven’t capitalised on, but he’s so sharp.
“He’s a different athlete and was excited all week to get playing. I spoke to him on Friday and he said ‘I’m so buzzing to be playing, so excited to come, and all my family are coming so I really want to play well’.
“He did that tonight, but there was also a lot of work done inside him. He seems to follow the ball, and is a good reader of the game.
“When Tomos broke through, he was around 40 meters away when the move started but ended up with the try.
“He can sniff those out and does that really well.”