Skipper dedicates derby day victory to the fans after the disappointment of Boxing Day's postponement, as he urges his players to up their game ahead of the big games during the next month.
Speaking to the media post-match, Alun Wyn Jones said:
“The score-line is a positive for us but our set-piece wasn’t as strong as it has been which is a disappointment as we want to perform as best as we can. The scrum was decent again but there’s a lot more work to do with the short turnaround this week.
“There was a lot of expectation after our performance against Munster, and there has been a lot of talk during the week, but it’s all hot air if we don’t deliver on the pitch.
“The set-piece is crucial as it wins you possession, and I remember saying after the game out in Munster that we had a lot of possession but we didn’t do the right things with it. When we get the possession and do the right things, we are pretty dangerous. We’ve showed that in fits and starts throughout the season, that when we do the simple things well, keep possession, then we can play good rugby. It’s a simple game, if you are going forward and have possession, then you usually win.
“As players we can be quite selfish at times, but this was one for the fans today, for the fans who turned up again today after it was off yesterday, and for the ones who couldn’t come back. The scoreline represents what we want to give back to the fans for their magnificent support.
“For almost a full house to turn up today after the disappointment they would have felt yesterday is brilliant, and we can’t thank them enough as a team. We are building and improving game on game, and the momentum we are gathering is being replicated by our fans, which is great. We always appreciate their efforts, and today they were superb.
“Hopefully, the fans who couldn’t get back here today will have enjoyed the result though, and we really want to see everyone back here for the Toulon game next month, showing the same levels again, helping to keep the Blackout going. It’s also important that we thank everybody involved at the stadium for their hard work to get the game on today, we should recognise their efforts.
“Over the last few weeks we’ve started to do the simple things, but we won’t get carried away, we won’t get ahead of ourselves. We still have a long way to go to be able to say that we are playing as we want to. As much as there were some good things out there today, we also realise that something’s didn’t go as we would have wanted and we need to improve in those areas if we are going to achieve what we want to. We are always striving to improve though, and that will be our aim between now and the end of the season.
“We’ve got some big games over the next month, Cardiff Blues and Leinster in the Magners then Heineken Cup games against London Irish and Toulon. We’ll have a much better picture of where our season is going after the Toulon match”