Nigel Davies admitted the home camp were devastated in the wake of their late loss to Cardiff, but insisted there was plenty in the Scarlets game to be encouraged about.
Three tries in the final 10 minutes snatched the victory for the Blues and Blacks to keep their URC play-off place alive after Scarlets had dominated the Welsh derby for long periods.
Speaking to the media post-match Interim Director of Rugby Davies said: “We felt we did enough to win, scored some really good tries, but obviously we got a few moments wrong in that last 15 minutes which turned the game Cardiff’s way. We made some poor decisions and the momentum swung. Fair play to Cardiff for sticking in there and coming away with the result, but there were five or six key moments which turned it in their favour.
“In terms of the effort, it was admirable. We should have scored more points in the first half, we had good field position, five-metre line-outs which we are not converting which is hurting us at the moment. It was a tough one to take.
Davies added: “I suppose, it is a reflection on the season that we have had – we have been competitive, but we haven‘t been clinical enough at key times. I am not taking anything away from Cardiff, you have to respect what they did there, but we had a lot of control, a lot of possession, a lot of territory, a lot of field position, which is good, but we have to convert that into points and results.
“We have got to be tougher on ourselves in lots of areas. We have done that and we know where we are going moving forward, there are certain things that we have been able to change, there are other things we can’t change immediately and moving forward we will make those changes and it will make a difference. At this level if you can add two, three, four, five percent to your game it makes a massive difference.
“I thought we came out with the right mindset, we knew where we needed to go after Cardiff, which we did. A key moment was going for a scrum (in the second half) and we got penalised when we should have kept the pressure on. The props had changed, the dynamic in the scrum had changed. From a team perspective, I felt we needed to put a foot on the ball at times.
“I thought there was a yellow card coming if we kept the pressure on, unfortunately we were on the wrong side of the yellow cards at the end, which again has been a consistent theme in our performances. These are the moments you have got to eliminate from your game and get right.
“The team are devastated, you would be losing a game like that and we have been on the other side of that this season against Ulster, but what I have said to the boys, we have three games left, we have got to pick ourselves up, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we have come close so many times, we have got to start converting those performances into results and that has been the difference this season.”
A crowd of 9,025 made for a vibrant derby atmosphere in the spring sunshine – the third 9,000-plus crowd at the Parc this season.
Davies added: “People in Wales want to see derby games, two teams going at each other like they did today and the turnout showed that.”
Scarlets are back at the Parc on Saturday when they take on South African side Vodacom Bulls (19:45)..