Blues must cut out mistakes, says Dai
DAI Young says Cardiff Blues must cut out the errors after they lost to Munster in a thrilling Rainbow Cup clash on Friday.
The Arms Park side staged a fine second-half comeback with tries from Tomos Williams and Lloyd Williams to lead at Thomond Park, but Munster snatched victory with a try of their own in the closing minutes.
“These are games we have to start turning losses into wins,” said Blues head coach Young.
“We’re not too far away but critical moments got away from us.
“There were lots of positives but we have to look at ourselves a little bit again playing against a quality team.
“We knew field position was always going to be important and stopping their driving lineout five metres out would be a big ask for us.
“What we talked about in the week is not giving them that position. For 25 to 30 minutes I thought we were excellent. We played a lot of good stuff.
“Then we were put under a bit of pressure, gave away two or three silly penalties and we were marched down the field and resulted in five-metre driving lineouts. Exactly what we said we didn’t want, which put us under pressure, which gave them momentum and gave us a bit of a mountain to climb.”
What did please Young was the creativity shown by his side, with Jarrod Evans showing up well.
But the former Wales prop stressed the importance of winning battles up front to allow his flair players to strike.
“It was closer to an 80-minute performance,” he told the club website.
“We played some great attacking rugby but when the game goes a bit quieter and becomes an arm wrestle, that’s when we start to struggle, panic and give away penalties and lose control of the field.
“We have to grow as a team.
“It is not all about playing great attacking rugby, that’s what we want to play but sometimes you have to earn that right by staying in the arm wrestle and winning those tough moments as well.
“There is still a bit of work to do up front but we showed some positive glimpses.
“We have to do it for 80 minutes and not for 10 minutes here or there, that’s not good enough.”