John Mulvihill rues his side’s errors in possession as they slumped to a Guinness PRO14 defeat to Scarlets on Saturday.
The hosts claimed maximum points at Parc y Scarlets, with Steff Evans named man of the match, as rugby returned following a six month break due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Josh Adams and Matthew Morgan registered on the scoresheet for Wales’ Capital Region, who now prepare for next week’s clash against Ospreys at Rodney Parade.
Mulvihill was left disappointed that his side could not pile more pressure on the Scarlets defence, and admits the scoreline was a fair reflection of how the game was balanced.
“We came down here expecting to put up a better performance and win,” said the head coach.
“But five tries to two was a fair reflection of the game. Three of their tries were very soft and we have work to do in a number of areas.
“The match lacked intensity. It wasn’t like the derbies we’ve had over the last number of seasons. It really had the feel of a pre season friendly. We made too many errors with the ball.
“Our bench were good when they came on and defensively we were ok. But it came down to things like quick tap tries, charge down tries and setting up a maul to score and they go to score at the other end.
“There are some things that shouldn’t be happening in the professional game.
“Scarlets won the first half 15-7 and the second half by 17-5 and we were the second best teams in both halves.
“We didn’t start well in either half, and the last 20 minutes was probably the best period of our game.
“One of our biggest things this year is winning the gain-line and we certainly didn’t win the gain-line today. We’ll have to take a different approach next week.
“In terms of the new breakdown laws, in some ways, it’s the old cliché that it’s better to play without the ball, because you run a risk of a turnover at nearly every ruck.
“Our breakdown work is good, our support work is really good but today we didn’t mount enough pressure on Scarlets. We only went over five phases twice and we scored from one of those phases.
“Against a team like that we have to be better with the ball. We need to be clinical off set piece.
“We speak about getting past teams off first phase and from kick receive, but we didn’t stay in the contest long enough with the ball.
“If that’s the case, you don’t put enough pressure on the opposition, you don’t put pressure on the referee to make any decisions, and that’s what hurt us today.”
The 2019/20 season will come to an end next week, with Cardiff Blues welcoming Ospreys to their temporary home at Rodney Parade, with Cardiff Arms Park still utilised as part of Dragon’s Heart Hospital.
Mulvihill expects some changes made to the side, as he looks to reward those who have trained well over the last few weeks.
“A lot of those boys will get another chance to have a crack, but we’ll also be bringing in some new boys next week as well,” added the Australian.
“There’s some young kids training really well at the moment, and they’ll get an opportunity against the Ospreys.
“Josh Navidi will be fit and ready to go, and someone like Max Llewellyn might step up next week as well.”