Although happy to have seen his Ospreys team secure a winning bonus point at the Liberty Stadium on Friday night, Head Coach Steve Tandy acknowledged that they'll need to move up several levels if they are going to stay in the play-off hunt.
It was a dominant performance from the Ospreys who led from only the fourth minute, and although there were plenty of positives, Tandy said that the entire group will recognise the need for improvement.
Speaking to the press shortly after the final whistle he said:
“It’s a happy changing room in there, but I think it’s a changing room that knows that we have to make improvements in some areas of our game.
“We’ve won one game, but we aren’t going to think everything is nice and rosy. We need to be more clinical when we go to the Millennium Stadium next Saturday.
“I think it was a professional performance but if I’m honest, when we look back at it I think we’ve left at least three tries out there. We should have finished a few more things off. It’s not like us to concede two tries in the manner we did either.
“I’m just happy to get 23 guys back together, touch wood no injuries, there’s nothing reported and the physios are not knocking on my door as of yet. That’s a great thing, it was a professional performance but we know we need to do better come next Saturday.
“This is a real good group with their feet on the ground. We know we need to tweak a few things
“It’s great to have internationals coming back after winning the championship who are desperate to play. It was good to get the bonus point done and dusted, and in fairness it’s a good reward for some of the younger’s boys who’ve gone to place like Ulster and Munster and picked up some important points for us.
“In that respect it’s good to have involved boys like Scott Baldwin, Lloyd Peers, Dmitri, Webby, Nipper and Ben John. It’s great to get them on because they deserve a real pat on the back for the performances they’ve put on throughout the Six Nations as well.
“It’s a special group, and it’s a great place to coach players when they are desperate to wear the jersey. I had a lot of tough conversations this week, but we are building a nice squad.
“We’ve just got to keep winning now. Obviously I’d have liked a few more points going into this part of the season, there are some tough fixtures coming up, but the only thing we can do is keep winning.
“Points will be taken off each other, we’ve got to play teams above us, so it’s important that we do put in a performance on Saturday against the Blues then we’ll have a little bit of time for the internationals to have a bit of a break. They’ll come back then for the final home game, against Treviso, where we can hopefully set ourselves up for the last two games.
“There’s a confidence in the group. The internationals are obviously flying after winning the Six Nations and then we’ve got guys who put in the performances to go to Ulster and win, to Thomond Park and pick up a draw. These boys do believe in themselves and we believe in them, but we’ve still got a lot to work on from tonight as it wasn’t perfect.”