Allen Clarke insisted his Ospreys team had dominated the Cardiff Blues as they ended their rivals’ hopes of a derby clean sweep.
The Ospreys coach saw his team win 20-11 at the Liberty Stadium – a venue where the Blues have now not won for 14 years – to leave the Blues five points adrift of their opponents in the Guinness Pro14 Conference A table.
It brought the Blues’ resurgence to an abrupt halt after their victories over the Scarlets and the Dragons with Clarke claiming it was a reflection of the home team’s control.
“It was derby football, they’re always cagey games, we had good dominance early on and scored a good try,” said Clarke.
“We managed to build some pressure on the scoreboard and we led all the way through.
“We’re really satisfied with the win, we weren’t happy with some elements of our game last week and we will try and build on this, but we felt quite dominant out there today.”
The Ospreys’ win came thanks to first-half tries from Scott Williams and George North and the cool head of Sam Davies, who added 10 crucial points from the boot including an opportunistic drop-goal to secure victory.
Gareth Anscombe was the shining light for the Blues as he orchestrated a try for Garyn Smith and kicked six points, but his efforts were in vain due the quality of Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric.
Warren Gatland would have been settling down to watch an array of Wales players fight it out for Six Nations places, but he was dealt an injury blow inside two minutes when Adam Beard sustained a neck injury after second-row took a blow in the action of entering a ruck.
The 22-year-old was stretchered off in a neck brace after a lengthy delay to throw his involvement in Wales’ Six Nations campaign into series doubt.
Blues coach John Mulvihill claimed the five-point gap between the teams is not a major cause for alarm and can be reeled in before the end of the campaign.
The Australian said: “It’s not a major one for us in terms of the Conference, because we’ve got them again before the end of the season. They have a pretty tough run, as do we, so we have to make sure we look after ourselves.
“If you concentrate on the table too much, then you’ll miss what’s in front of you, and maybe some of the guys had that in the back of their minds. We let an opportunity slip out there tonight.
“It looked a little bit of a tired performance from both teams, but they got to the right areas of the field and took their opportunities well.
“Last week, we left nothing out on the field against Scarlets but these are professional athletes and we’re professional coaches and we’ve prepared them as well as possible with low-management throughout the week to get a balance.
“I knew it would be close, and we’d have an opportunity to win, but it would’ve been one of the most frustrating wins we’ve ever had, and it ended up probably being one of the most frustrating losses we’ve had this year.”
