By Max Drinkwater-James
Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt was quick to praise his players heart and spirit despite a disappointing performance which saw his side lose 27-8 on the road to Edinburgh. A bonus point win for Edinburgh sank Cardiff leaving them without a win in the Scottish capital in five years.
Speaking to Premier sports after the game Sherratt said “I think for large parts, we were pretty competitive in that game. It was a good game. Half time you could tell that our players were emotionally charged and right in the game”.
A spirited first half saw Cardiff well in with a chance of winning the game but a drop in performance in the second half saw the game slip away from them.
Sherratt highlighted his side’s ill discipline which was ultimately a driving factor behind his side’s capitulation.
“Second half when, when you just look at the flow of the game. I think we gave away 10 penalties. They [Edinburgh] gave two, obviously we struggled to win some set peace force. We didn’t really ever get a chance to get a foothold in the game.” he said.
“But in terms of defensively, our competitiveness around winning second balls on the floor [in the] contact area, I thought that was a really emotionally charged guarded performance, which I’m pretty proud of.”
Sherratt was open about his side’s drop off in the second half. “I think we lived off scraps in the second half. Really, if you think about it, starting straight after the game, we didn’t really put them under sustained pressure for a number of reasons.” he said.
SHerratt was open to accept Edinburgh’s strong performance but restated his thoughts on his side’s efforts.
“They competed really hard at the breakdown, probably got the rub of the green in terms of the penalty count and then set piece wise, you could see at the end we struggled to put two or three phases together to put ’em under any pressure.”
