“But we showed a lot of character and came back and posed them some problems. We scrummaged very well – Welsh rugby tends to place more emphasis on scrummaging and that proved to be the case today.”
Cardiff coach David Young: “It is fair to say that there weren’t many departments that we were not second best in.
“We thought that we would have been more competitive, but we missed more first-up tackles today than we had done all season, and it was a hard lesson for our players today.
“Only 12 months ago, Northampton were in the same position as us, but they have turned it around.”
Swansea coach John Connolly: “Bristol are a big side. They controlled the game in the opening 20 minutes and were able to score points during that period.”
“We thought that if we could have gone into the break within a few points we could have taken the game, because we overtook them at St Helen’s last week.
“As it was, though, the deficit was 23 points and that was just too much for us to pull back.
“One big difference was that last week we made out tackles count this week we didn’t.”
Neath hat-trick hero Steve Tandy: “It’s my first hat trick for the club.
“To score at all is nice, but to get three is most pleasing. It took us a while to break them down – we were trying to play a lot of rugby by keeping the ball out of contact, but it was just that a few balls did not bounce our way.
“We were all so disappointed about last week’s result that we were desperate to make up for it today.
“It is so disappointing that we are not going through. We only just lost out in Beziers and we should really be top of our group but, as it is, that second half in Italy has let us down badly and we are now just playing for pride.”
