Head coach Matt Sherratt admitted it was disappointing to miss out on a losing bonus point in the dying moments of Cardiff’s game against Stormers, but regardless of results elsewhere, believes the Club has exceeded expectations this season.

The Blue and Blacks scored a bonus point try which also took them to within seven points of the Stormers and within losing bonus point territory, but a late Stormers penalty meant that Cardiff came away with just one bonus point.

The result moved Cardiff to seventh in the table, but they will need to wait on other matches to see if they have qualified for the knockouts.

Whatever the outcome, Sherratt has been pleased with the progress made by the Club, but wants them to continue pushing forward.

“I think we’ve shown with this team over the last two seasons that we certainly don’t lack effort,” said Sherratt.

“Obviously we’re disappointed and felt it was a game that we could have got a little bit more out of.

“Disappointed at the end to miss out on a point and who knows how important that would be, but I think it’s important to reflect on the season as a whole.

“It’s easy to look at one game and the odd moment, but ultimately, we’ve played 18 games and just came up short.

“I think expectations at the start of the season have probably been exceeded.

“The icing on the cake would have been to get in the playoffs, no doubt about that, but to double our wins, play some of the rugby that we’ve played, the amount of tries and try bonus points we’ve scored, means we’ve developed on last season.

“It’s important to take a breath, and the biggest thing for me is the club just keeps pushing forward.

“Not standing still in terms of staff, facilities, our academy, and making sure that when the players come in July they see that the club is going in the right direction.

“As I’ve said before if our foundations are right then instead of just missing out we’ll be in the top eight, because the potential is definitely there.”

Cardiff went down to 14 men when Danny Southworth received a red card for a high tackle, and we’re undone by a couple of unlucky bounces of the ball which resulted in Stormers tries.

Sherratt conceded that against a team with the talent of the Stormers, you need the luck to go your way, and said he was proud of the performance from the players to stay in the game until the death.

“I think it would have been easy with14 men to become a victim and just let the game get away from you, but I thought we actually played some really good stuff when we were down to 14.

“It’s probably a place where you need a little bit of the bounce of the ball to go for you.

“They’ve got such good athletes that you can defend very, very well and they’ll still score a try. They’ve got some world-class players out there, especially in their outside backs.

“They were always going to have moments. They had moments and probably a couple of bounces of the ball, a red card and a game that’s probably 50-50 is just tilted in their favour.

“We were a score away from getting three points at the end there, so I’m immensely proud of the players and the staff.”

Cardiff’s head coach reemphasised the need for the club to build on the foundations set this season.

“On the whole, this season there’s been a real progression on last year. I just think the key for the club now is to build on this and not stand still because we’ve got everything in place.

“It’s a club with great history, great support, in a great city, so we need to build on this foundation that we’ve started to lay.”

If Cardiff don’t make the playoffs, Sherratt puts it down to last week’s results, where their rivals were able to leap frog the Blue and Blacks.

They will now need to wait for the outcome of Edinburgh against Ulster and Munster versus Benetton to see if they progress.

“It’s probably last week’s results that the ones that hurt us, but there’s no point in worrying about what other people do,” added Sherratt.

“It’s difficult enough to control what happens on the pitch when we’re on it for 80 minutes.

“I’m not going to lose too much sleep about what’s going on in other games.”