Young gives honest assessment of Cardiff in defeat

Cardiff boss Dai Young pulled no punches in the wake of his side’s 35-20 loss to Scarlets on Saturday. 

Despite being reduced to 14 men early in the second half, Scarlets still managed to run home to victory. 

Young gave an honest assessment of the proceedings. 

"I don't think I'll park it, to be quite honest," he said. "The biggest disappointment is that we seem to go two steps forwards and one back. We've got an opportunity to right a few wrongs from tonight back at home [next week]. But we can't brush this under the carpet because it wasn't good enough. 

"We came second best in every area. We have to ask ourselves why and make sure that it doesn't become a regular occurrence. I don't want to make too much of an issue of it but you have to ask questions. 

"I thought we were in control in the first 20. We conceded a bit of a sloppy try to let them back in but after that it was all Scarlets. For 60 minutes we came second best everywhere. 

"We didn't have any control. We didn't have a set piece which was surprising. That's something we've improved over the last few weeks and it didn't happen for us tonight. 

"None of our ball-carriers were going forward and defensively we weren't winning the gainline. It's very difficult to get yourself back in the game. Don't take anything away from the Scarlets because for the last 60 they were by far the better team." 

The numbers show that Cardiff have a serious problem away from their home turf, with 7 losses from as many away outings.  

"We look a different team when we're away from home compared to at home,” Young said. “That's something we've already talked about internally and we don't want to be known as that team but, at the minute, the evidence is there for us. 

"Most teams have a better home record than away. But what I see is that the players have far more confidence... they make mistakes at home and it doesn't seem to affect their game too much. When we're away, one or two mistakes and you can see the confidence draining out of the team. They linger too much on the mistakes rather than getting on with the next job. 

"That's probably something that's a work in progress for us. But until you get those Ws away from home then people are going to question it. We haven't had a truly real good performance away from home yet." 

Another worrying aspect of the game for Cardiff was the scrums where they found themselves outmatched, giving away a string of penalties and momentum to their opponents. 

I was disappointed with that because it was an area that I was hoping we could target tonight," Young continued. "There was nothing in it really until that period. 

"I was a little bit surprised that Dillon got the yellow card because he isn't our loose-head. It looked to me like there wasn't much in it but at the end of the day they were in the ascendency there. No complaints. You have to show the referee the right picture, which is looking like you're dominant. 

"If you look like you're under a bit of pressure then they're probably going to go against you." 

Young concluded by pointing out that the players and coaching staff have to roll up their sleeves and put in some hard yards if they are to rectify their campaign. 

"As I said to the players, the only positive thing is that we've got an opportunity to put it right next week. We're really frustrated and disappointed with our performance. The Scarlets were better in every area but we've got to be better than that. 

"We have to look at ourselves as a coaching group because some of the messages we're trying to filter into the squad are not hitting the right notes, that's for sure. It's certainly not being consistent. Last week we were very good for 30 or 40 minutes but we didn't get an 80 minute performance. Tonight we had 20 that wasn't too bad but there was 60 that just wasn't good enough."