John Mulvihill praised his Cardiff Blues for baiting the trap he insisted the Scarlets had fallen into after becoming the first team to win in Llanelli in the Guinness Pro 14 for over two years.
It was a dominant, bullying 34-5 victory for the Blues on Saturday evening who were happy to let the Scarlets have plenty of ball, knowing they could do little with it other than hand over possession.
A brace of tries from Ray Lee-lo plus a try apiece from Gareth Anscombe and Lloyd Williams was enough to see off Wayne Pivac’s side. All the Scarlet could muster was a first-half score from Johnny McNicholl.
“We knew that if we put Scarlets under a bit of pressure that they’d have to force the game to try to score,” said Blues head coach Mulvihill.
“The last two tries came out of the defence we had in the first half and the pressure we put on them, so they did chase the game and threw two error passes.
“We’d worked on that all week, and they’re a team that do move the ball and they’re the highest in the PRO14 for offloads. We set the trap and they went into it.
“There was stages when they held onto the ball for 36 phases, and also 28, 26 and 18 phases, so they held the ball for long periods of time but they didn’t go anywhere.
“That will sap you as a team and you’d lose a bit of confidence. They’re a team capable of doing 70 meters on the field but tonight they were very tight with one-off runners.
“If you want to run straight at a Cardiff Blues player, they’ll accommodate you with a shoulder and that’s what happened tonight.
“We were pretty good with the ball, and there will always be things you can work on. Two of our tries came without the ball so we were really happy with the defence.
“We had a nice break and interplay with Blaine [Scully] from Lloyd [Williams], who was picked tonight for his kicking game but he was really sharp with the ball, which was great.
“The second try came from really good footwork from a midfield scrum, which was hard to defend. We got to the edge and had too much speed. That’s something we’ve been quite good at this year.
“For us, it’s about having a consistent message of putting the first phase and the second and third together to give us a bit of momentum going forward.”
Scarlets coach Pivac has now seen his team lost five matches on the trot and eight of their last 10 games in all competitions.
“We’re clearly disappointed,” said Pivac.
“The defence from the Blues was very impressive and at the end of the day they thoroughly deserved their win.
“We had the bulk of territory and possession so you’d think the scoreline would be the other way around.
“There were some big shots going in out there and they dominated a lot of the physical exchanges. At the end of the day they thoroughly deserved the win.”
With five points in the bag, Cardiff Blues remain in the hunt for a place in the Heineken Champions Cup next year, as they look to narrow the gap on Munster, Connacht and Ospreys.
Mulvihill believes the extra point could prove crucial as his side prepare for another tough derby encounter against Allan Clarke’s Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium next week.
He added: “The significance of picking up the five points, rather than four, is massive in the context of the whole season.
“Connacht are sailing away at the moment, as are the Ospreys, who are doing really well.
“This keeps us in the mix and keeps it interesting. We will face those teams twice over the next few months so we had to win tonight to keep in touch.
“If you had said we’d win with a bonus point beforehand, I’d have said you were away with the fairies, but for us, to get that five is brilliant.”
