Danny Wilson was delighted to secure victory over Dragons on Boxing Day, despite poor playing conditions at Rodney Parade.
Rain flooded down throughout the game, but tries from Aled Summerhill, Rey Lee-Lo and Tom James proved decisive as Cardiff Blues sealed the 17-22 win.
Wilson has been pleased with his side’s response since the 24-0 loss at Sale, and insists the Blues stuck to the game plan despite the conditions in Newport.
"I’m pleased we’ve managed to come away with an away win at Rodney Parade,” said Wilson.
“You can only play a certain way in these conditions, and you look back to three weeks ago when we played Sale away in similar conditions and we were awful. We didn’t get it right.
“This group has come a long way since then, and the very next week we played Sale home in poor conditions, and today in poor conditions and we’ve managed the game far better, and it’s been enough to give us two wins.
“I was really pleased with the first 60 minutes. We played the right way in difficult conditions, managed to pressurise them with our line speed, which we targeted before the game, and obviously scored three good tries.”
Dragons fought their way back into the game, setting up a tense finale, thanks to a penalty try and a Lloyd Fairbrother score, while Brad Thyer and Kirby Myhill were shown yellow cards for the visitors.
The Cardiff Blues head coach credited the hosts’ attitude in the closing stages of the game, and believes the yellow cards made it difficult for his side at times.
Wilson said: “Credit to the Dragons, it’s a tough place to come to play and they didn’t give up when the scoreline was high against them, as it was at 60 minutes.
“Perhaps we were in a position to go after the bonus point, not that we were chasing that because the weather doesn’t put you in a position to chase, it was more about finding good field position to finish the game off.
“Unfortunately we failed to do that and they scored two good tries and got themselves back in the game.
“There were two yellow cards during the game as well, and it’s tough for us two play with 14 men for two big chunks of time, especially when it’s your hooker towards the end of the game, you can’t bring another one and you’re trying to throw into the line-outs in terrible conditions.
“It was always going to be a tough one."