Olly Robinson insists his side must rediscover their smile as they welcome Benetton Rugby to the Welsh capital on Sunday (KO 5.15pm).
John Mulvihill’s side suffered a heavy defeat to Connacht last week, and will be itching to prove a point when the Italians visit town.
Robinson admits it’s been a brutally honest week of training and insists the squad want to show what they’re capable of against their Conference B rivals.
“The beauty of professional sports is that the weeks come thick and fast. You can’t afford to sulk about results,” said Robinson.
“We’ve got a big game against Benetton to prepare for this weekend and we’re looking forward to going out there and right some wrongs.
“There’s a lot of work we needed to do from last weekend and we’re under no illusions. It wasn’t good enough from us.
“We have to step up physically put in a performance which looks like the way that we want to play, and I don’t think we saw that against Connacht.
“We didn’t hold on to the ball for long enough, didn’t stretch them enough with the ball and we made it difficult for ourselves when they had the ball.
“We want to go out there and fire some shots this week. We want to play with a smile on our faces rather than going out and not play the way we want to play.
“We have no choice but to step up this weekend. We let ourselves down last week, so this week is about proving a point and showing what we can do as rugby players.
“Benetton are a really good side, who got into the play-offs last year. They’ve got some players in their squad who are with Italy but they’re a physical side with good ball carriers so we’re expecting them to come here and put in a good performance.
“For us to go out there and get the result we’ll have to show the way we play when we’re at our best and focus on ourselves rather than concentrate too much at the opposition.”
In the reverse fixture earlier this season, Jason Harries’ last gasp try secured a dramatic win for the Blues.
While Robinson missed out on the trip to Treviso through injury, he expects a backlash from the Italians but insists his side are also mentally desperate for victory on Sunday.
“They’ll be hurting after the last minute defeat against us out there so we’re expecting a bit of a backlash from them,” said the back row.
“But the side that went out to Treviso earlier this season did really well in that game and really fronted up, and that will be something that we’ll have to do once again this week if we want to be in a position where we can win the game.
"The edge has been there for us in training this week. It’s not been an easy week but that’s brilliant for us.
“There’s a lot of competition and hurt lads around the place and we’re hoping to show that when we get out there this weekend.”