Cardiff coach Corniel van Zyl admitted his side were made to pay for missed opportunities as the Blue & Blacks fell to defeat against the Scarlets in the latest chapter of the East vs West Wales derby.

Despite enjoying sustained periods of pressure, particularly close to the Scarlets’ line, Cardiff were unable to turn territory and possession into points. Van Zyl highlighted those moments as the key difference on the night.

“When you have so many entries with a close line and get held up so many times against a team like that, you either score or you don’t,” he said. “If you don’t, that obviously comes around and they take their shot. That’s a lesson for us. I think we had systems in place, especially close to the line, but we didn’t execute well enough.”

The Cardiff coach was keen to stress that his side’s overall standards this season have been high, but conceded that fine margins proved costly against quality opposition.

“We’ve been good all season, and being honest, we’ve probably only had two individual errors, and then that’s what happens,” he explained. “Fair play to them, they took their chances and they’re a quality team. In rugby, it does come around in a run-about. You look at the Edinburgh game, where we win with the last kick of the game – it tends to balance itself out over the course of a season.”

Van Zyl also pointed to the volume of opportunities Cardiff created, noting that their inability to capitalise ultimately separated the two sides.

“They’re a great team, and I think we had 22 entries there,” he said. “If you don’t score on any of them and don’t capitalise, you take your hat off to them. They were the better team in the sense that they created and capitalised on their opportunities.”

While disappointed with the outcome, Van Zyl believes the defeat could serve as a timely reminder of the standards required moving forward, with attention now turning quickly to the next challenge.

“We’re not happy with that, I’ll be honest with you – that’s not what we’re about,” he added. “We’ll have a review of it and I think it’ll be almost a reality check. We’ve been flying high, and hopefully we can right the wrongs against the Dragons.”

Cardiff will now look to respond positively as they seek to bounce back and turn lessons learned into improved performances in the weeks ahead.