Josh Navidi insists Cardiff Blues are going in the right direction following Saturday's agonising one-point loss to Glasgow Warriors.
A Tom James try and 14 points from the boot of Steven Shingler kept Danny Wilson’s side within touching distance, but a late penalty miss proved costly as the Scottish outfit secured victory at Cardiff Arms Park.
The Blues did secure a losing bonus point and the back row insists it is vital that his side continue to improve from week-to-week as they now look ahead to next week’s trip to Connacht.
“It was a good team performance, and obviously at the end, if the kick had gone over, we would have won. We had opportunities early on in the game that we could’ve seen the game off,” said Navidi.
“I thought the front five played well, the backs controlled the game well and I thought we were on the front foot.
“They had a good spell during that second half, in the first 10-15 minutes, where they kept the pressure on us and got a few points out of it. The game tightened up, and we weren’t able to capitalise on it at the end.
“We can’t put it down to the kick. It could’ve gone either way at the end of the day. As I said it was a good team performance as we build ahead to next week’s game against Connacht and we’ll look forward to it.
“Compared to the first home game of the season it was a massive improvement, but now we’ve got to keep improving and keep moving forward week-by-week and hopefully we’ll get to where we want to.
“All we need to do is focus on ourselves and continue to improve each week.”
Navidi wore the number seven jersey on Saturday, standing in to cover the injured Ellis Jenkins and Sam Warburton, both who are set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
Three-times capped Welsh international, Navidi, is more than happy to step in to the number seven jersey, but admits he’s had to slightly adjust his game in order to adapt to the openside.
“During pre-season I’ve been training more as a six and eight, but obviously with Ellis and Sam now out for a while, I’ve had to fill the seven jersey.
“It’s going back to where I started, and I can cover anywhere across the back row. It’s just about changing my game back to suit seven a bit more.
“There is a big focus on breakdown and you have to get down, over the ball, and you’re in the position on line-outs to get to that first ruck.
“You have to adapt the way you play, but it’s not too difficult to change and from open play six, seven and eight are similar.”