Ellis Jenkins has told Cardiff Blues they must raise their game to triumph in a European play-off against Stade Francais.
Finishing seventh in the Guinness PRO12 secured the Blues a play-off semi-final against the French outfit, with the last place in the European Champions Cup up for grabs.
Danny Wilson’s men have won their last three encounters but Jenkins believes there is plenty to improve on following their performance against Newport Gwent Dragons.
He said: “It wasn’t a great game to watch, maybe a below par performance from both teams but we’ve got the win, which we came for and it puts a better finish on our season.
“We haven’t lost a game since Gloucester so we have to take the positives out of it going into the play-off semi-final.
“We need to step our performances up, we peaked against the Ospreys a little bit and in the last two weeks we’ve stumbled and struggled to hit our straps.
“It’s going to take a bigger performance than the last two weeks to go to France and win but we have two weeks to prepare so we will recover and then go forward.
“Our goal at the start of the season was to get top six for that reason. It hasn’t materialised as we would have liked but we have a shot to nothing now to sneak in.”
If Cardiff Blues triumph in Paris they will then travel to face the winner of Northampton Saints/Gloucester v Connacht.
Jenkins knows it is a formidable challenge but he is also confident that on their day the Blues can complete with any team, it is just a matter of finding greater consistency.
He added: “It’s going to be a tough game out there but it’s a semi-final, we will go there, it’s a one off game and we have to try to get through it.
“It’s a semi-final, potentially a final and anything can happen in those games.
“We’ve played some good stuff but we’re just not consistent enough. Consistency is what we are striving for, getting our best players playing at the same time and when we’ve done that we’ve looked impressive.”