by Ethan Harris
CARDIFF Blues head coach John Mulvihill called for his side to be more patient after they fell to a late 14-11 defeat against Leicester Tigers in the European Challenge Cup.
Tom Hardwick’s last-gasp penalty won the game for Geordan Murphy’s side, after the Blues wasted a number of chances to push ahead with the game tied at 11-11 with the clock in the red.
Instead it was the Tigers who took the four points back to the East Midlands, and Mulvihill was left rueing another missed opportunity.
“We got into their 22 and we weren’t patient,” the Australian said.
“Will Boyde carried well but we just have to stay on the try-line, we just went out the back a little bit quick there.
“Aled (Summerhill) was taken to touch by a pretty desperate defence and that’s what it was like, they were pretty desperate tonight and a lot of young guys put their hands up for selection in that group.
“We got a point out of tonight, we dropped four because we didn’t win but you look at it and think we were lucky to be 11-all on the final whistle, so to get a point you take that as a positive.
“I don’t think either team deserved to lose, they were lucky enough to be on the ball for the last penalty and you rue those losses but there’s a long way to go in the competition.”
The Blues now have six points from two games in the Challenge Cup, and thanks to a Pau victory earlier in the day, retain their second-place spot in Pool 5.
And Mulvihill took plenty of positives from a performance that could have easily earned the Blues victory on another day.
“We played some really good rugby at times tonight but lacked control in some of the finer areas of the game,” he continued.
“You could see that towards the end, we had an opportunity to roll the ball out but elected to keep playing.
“It’s disappointing that we won most facets of the game but the scoreboard in the end, and that’s our own fault as well.
“That’s probably a little bit of game management and our rate of turnover, we turned over the ball nineteen times today, that’s by far the highest in the last 18 months.
“We really got stuck in that mid-third management and paid the consequences in the end.”
“In heart of hearts it should have been a draw, we have six points out of the first two games, so it just means we need to go and win away from home as well.”
The 2017-18 Challenge Cup champions resume their campaign in a fortnight’s time, when they host French side Pau on December 7.
