Danny Wilson hopes his side will continue to show development and improvement in their performances ahead of two tough away trips to face Connacht and Munster over the next fortnight.
Cardiff Blues were narrowly defeated by Glasgow Warriors last weekend, but the head coach remains optimistic about the performance, which was a step forward from earlier Guinness PRO14 defeats to Edinburgh and Leinster.
Wilson has been encouraged by the signs shown in training during the week and, with a number of players edging towards a return from injury, he is pleased by the determination shown within the squad to build on Saturday’s performance.
“The performance in general against Glasgow Warriors was a big improvement on the Edinburgh game and a step forward from the Leinster game,” said Wilson.
“In terms of analysing the performance, we were relatively pleased that we made the steps in the right direction that we needed to, and obviously it came down to the wire in a tight game against a decent Glasgow team.
“We’re three games into a very long season, as we all know, and we knew we had tough fixtures going alongside quite a lengthy injury list.
“What’s pleasing is that we’re starting to get some of those players back and by the end of the five-week block that we’ve had, we will have completed all away trips to Ireland and got them all quite early.
“We’re all relatively positive from the performance on the weekend and now, with a couple of boys set to come back from injury, we need to improve and build on that and start picking up results.
“We look at the performance first and foremost and ask ‘Was it a better performance and an improved performance?’. Yes it was.
“In certain areas we were extremely dominant, like the scrum for an example, on the day was extremely dominant.
“We failed to nick it and get over the line but we got to build on the performance going into next week. As long as I’m seeing that we’re making improvements each week, which I have seen over the three weeks, then we’ll continue down that stream.
“We should’ve come out with a win, and didn’t, but we’ll make sure we’re confident and buoyant going into Connacht, and the players and leaders have shown that so far this week.”
Meanwhile, Connacht, under the guidance of new head coach, Kieran Keane, fell to a 21-8 defeat to Dragons at Rodney Parade, thanks to tries from Hallam Amos, Elliott Dee and 11 points from the boot of Gavin Henson.
Following a home win against Southern Kings in Round 2, Connacht currently sit five points ahead of Cardiff Blues in Conference A.
Wilson is aware of the challenges facing his side ahead of the trip to Galway and hopes the Blues can repeat the Dragons’ result over Keane’s side.
Wilson said: “We had a good look at Connacht over their first three games and they’re their usual selves.
“A gritty side at home who play a fair amount of rugby, which Pat has left that imprint in them and they’re playing from quite deep.
“I believe they left two or three players who had played the first few games out of the trip to face Dragons, but we’re predicting some of those guys might come back in.
“It was a good win for Dragons to beat Connacht at home and hopefully we can follow suit and beat them away.
“At the moment, the weather prediction is pretty savage so we’ve been working on a gameplay to deal as much with Connacht as with the weather. But you know that when you go out there, that’s probably a given.”
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