Both Cardiff Rugby and Scarlets just failed to convert a final opportunity to win their home clashes with South African opponents, the Bulls and Lions, while Ospreys led in the 76th minute at home against Glasgow Rugby.
The Dragons stayed in touch with Leinster in appalling conditions into the second half, before going down 31-10 – making it four defeats in a row.
Now it is on to Round 5, and another regional derby with the Dragons hosting Ospreys at Rodney Parade on Saturday, 18 November (5.15pm kick-off). Cardiff head to Italy to face Zebre and the Scarlets go to Dublin to meet Leinster.
This is what they had to say after the weekend matches.
CARDIFF RUGBY 12 – 18 BULLS
Head coach, Matt Sherratt: “All four games have had just one score in it and we will take the positives from that performance.
“We have young guys learning in a tough environment and results can affect players, but we are fronting up in every game and that’s what everyone wants to see.
“I have a clear ambition of what a Cardiff performance should look like and that was closer to it than the win over Dragons.”
OSPREYS 23 – 31 GLASGOW WARRIORS
Ospreys head coach, Toby Booth: “Sport can be cruel and sometimes you don’t get what you deserve. It’s a tough pill to swallow. Glasgow are a very good side, but they didn’t do anything we didn’t expect.
“For 75 minutes we more than matched them, so we’re not going to thrash ourselves over this loss. We just didn’t nail those key moments when we had the chance early on.
“I’m proud of the way we got back into the game and we are benchmarking ourselves against a very good side. We started well, we didn’t convert some of our chances and
The best rolling maul defence is not to have to have one. We need to look at how they got into that position – prevention would have been better than cure.”
SCARLETS 23 – 24 BULLS
Scarlets head coach, Dwayne Peel: “We’re bitterly disappointed because it was a game we had in the bag. For large parts we were the better side, but we made a few basic, fundamental errors in the last 10 minutes and we were not accurate enough.
“You have to be on high alert to do your job in moments like that. There were three of four back-to-back errors that gave them the chance and that was the winning of the game for them
“From a game where we were pretty comfortable after 72 minutes, to losing it, is a tough one. In terms of intent and effort we were pretty good. We moved the ball well and looked sharp.
“It just came down to those last 10 minutes and we weren’t accurate enough. We’ve only got ourselves to blame, and it is four points that have gone begging.
“We have to move on and I thought Ryan Elias and Ioan Lloyd were outstanding. They certainly didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.”
DRAGONS 10 – 31 LEINSTER
Head coach, Dai Flanagan: “We did some good stuff and we did some really, really poor stuff. The challenge is on us to stop doing that.
“We are doing some stuff that is not acceptable. We’re not going to get wins unless we start performing better and eradicating the errors.
“It was 14-3 at half-time and we talked about putting the pressure on them, but we made an error, and they went the length of the field to score. It was 26-10 when Taine Basham was sent off and we had a lineout 15 metres out with the opportunity to build pressure. Instead, we relieved pressure and it was game over – that was massively frustrating.
“It was very silly from Taine. He wants to be a top-end player, but that wasn’t good enough and top-end players don’t do things like that.
“In the first half, we were in the game and there were no comms between the touch judge and the referee. We were hearing the touch judge calling infringements against Leinster that the ref hasn’t given, then we found out at half-time the mics weren’t working. The league needs to be better than that.
“We have the Ospreys in a derby game next and it’s personal. We have to get 15 on the field after a six-day turnaround, but it’s one we can look forward to and be excited about.”
