Head coach Matt Sherratt said he was frustrated after his side’s narrow loss to Connacht in the BKT United Rugby Championship.

The Blue and Blacks overcame a slow start when they trailed 19-0 early in the second half, before tries from Rey Lee-Lo, Ben Donnell and new boy Callum Braley brought the scores level. Unfortunately, the home side were able to seal the victory with a late try.

Sherratt acknowledged that Cardiff were rusty in the early stages of the game, but the weather conditions in Galway were a big factor.

“It’s a little bit frustrating,” said Sherratt. “I thought obviously first half wasn’t our best start.

“It looked like we’d had a couple of weeks without a game, a little bit clunky, some timing issues, but obviously the conditions dictated the game as well.

“We weren’t too disappointed with 14-0 because obviously it was a very, very strong wind.

“We thought if we put some play together and got some territory in the second half, we could get back into the game which we did.”

Cardiff dominated the second half with the wind in their favour, but Connacht were able to score two tries against the run of play which proved vital.

However, the Blue and Blacks were still chasing victory at the death until some errors and what Sherratt believes was a contentious decision stopped them in their tracks.

“Credit to them, they probably got two bits of field position in the second half and scored two tries and ultimately that proved to be the difference and even at the end there we were putting pressure on them.

“It was probably a little bit contentious at the end with the last play of the game, I think there was a TMO come in for a head contact on Gabe Hamer-Webb, but unfortunately Holly had already blown the whistle so it’s one of those ones that probably slipped away.

“We were confident at half-time we would get back into it.

“As I said the conditions were pretty hard to get any territory in the first half so we knew that if we got our rhythm back and probably a little bit more physical and there were maybe a few too many collisions in the first half we thought we could get back in the game.

“But the last eight minutes there were a couple of errors and a couple of penalties against us and the game slipped away from us unfortunately.”

Cardiff did come away from Galway with a losing bonus point, and although Sherratt was pleased with the point after the start, he still thought they could have got more from the game.

“The league today is about accumulation of points and then at 19-0 down we feel left with nothing, so to go home from Ireland with a point is a point earned but as I said it could have been more.”