Coaches must accept some blame for defeats, says Mulvihill

CARDIFF Blues head coach John Mulvihill has identified the areas in which his side must improve and candidly explained why the coaches need to shoulder some of the blame.

After European Challenge Cup success last term, the region entered the new season full of optimism but have lost their opening two games, against Leinster and Benetton, despite leading both heading into the final quarter.

The Blues lost their opening weekend clash with a weakened Leinster side by a single point in what was a dramatic contest that ended 32-33.

As he searched for answers, Mulvihill explained that his coaching staff had to look at themselves after an oversight on their behalf came back to bite them.

Most professional teams will practice a two-minute drill with the sole purpose of simply keeping hold of the ball. It’s so that if the scores are close, they can keep possession until the clock ticks into the red and then boot it off the field.

They weren’t able to do that against Leinster just before half-time and it cost them a crucial three points.

“The first thing we do as a coaching team is as soon as we win or lose, sit down as a group and identify the areas that we weren’t good at, that we didn’t cover in that week of preparation,” explained the Aussie.

“We have a slow ball play - the way the boys finished off their season last year, they held the ball for a minute and a half.

“We didn’t cover that off in that Leinster week and that’s our fault as coaches. Had we done that (the slow ball play) just before half time, they wouldn’t have kicked three points, we’d have just put the ball into touch.

“We’ve got a checklist we go through but we just didn’t go through that this week, we assumed that the players were fine.

“But what I learned is that you don’t assume anything and you make sure that everything is covered.

“Each week is a bit different but those core things like how to close a game down, we’ve gone into scenarios since then in training and the boys have handled it well.”