Josh McNally is determined to sign off the regular season with a big performance against DHL Stormers after a disappointing night in Pretoria.
The Blue & Blacks left Loftus Versfeld empty-handed following a dominant first-half performance from Vodacom Bulls.
Cardiff battled back after the break with tries through Alex Mann, Teddy Williams and Gabriel Hamer-Webb but could not do enough to secure a four-try bonus-point.
With the Race for the Eight going down to the wire, Cardiff now have to pick up as many points as possible in Cape Town on Friday night.
McNally said: “Our message before the game was we didn’t want to finish this game wondering what we could have done and I think in the last 20 minutes you saw what we could have done.
“We just didn’t fire any shots in the first half and we gave a quality side like the Bulls, too much possession, too much momentum. If you do that it’s going to be very hard to come back from. We’ll look at it and we’ve got a big game next week.
“As a group all year we just we’ve stuck to process, to our performances, and we’ll have to look at this on Monday. It wasn’t good enough and we’ll go through to next week and see if we can put a performance down (against Stormers)
“The play-offs will look after themselves. Ultimately we want to put a performance down and if we get into the playoffs we’re on a good momentum run. We’ll have a good six day turnaround now and see what comes up next week.
“It’s been hugely competitive all year. Up until two rounds ago, the top four to the about the 15th position was in contest. It’s hugely competitive with teams from all over Europe and South Africa. It’s a great league to be part of.”