THE Ospreys admitted to being disappointed with their performance against the Blues at the Millennium Stadium, despite running out 23-16 winners in the Pro12 encounter on Saturday evening.
The champions completed a perfect campaign against their fellow Welsh regions in the league this season: played six, won the lot. They also jumped back into the play-off places at the expense of the Scarlets, who had overtaken them earlier in the day with a win over the Dragons.
But after running in two tries in the first half and taking a 20-10 interval lead, the Ospreys struggled to kick on against a stubborn Blues outfit.
Ospreys assistant coach Gruff Rees said: "We are pleased to get the four points because we didn't underestimate the Blues challenge.
"But we are disappointed with our performance.
"We set our own standards. We are asking the boys to get better every week but we didn't improve today.
"There were some pleasing moments in the first half, but we had barely any control in what we were doing the more the game went on.
"Our kicking game was erratic and structurally there were too many flaws.
"We know we have a power base and our set-piece certainly can be imposing but we didn't hammer that home as a collective.
"It's frustrating. The Blues fronted up and made things difficult for us and put us on the back foot for periods in the second half. But it's about us and we are disappointed."
The Ospreys saw Lions hopeful Ian Evans leave the field on 18 minutes, but Rees was optimistic the injury he suffered wouldn't prove serious.
"He had a bang to the hip but taking him off was more precautionary than anything else," said Rees.
"We also wanted to give Joe Bearman some rugby.
"The bump itself looked innocuous, but we are going to have to manage it carefully; hopefully, it's nothing too serious."
James King and Jonathan Spratt scored tries for the Ospreys, with Dan Biggar kicking 13 points.
Leigh Halfpenny supplied all the points for the Blues, including a try.
