Gareth Anscombe admitted the Cardiff Blues made hard work of their derby victory over 14-man Dragons in a game that the Wales fly-half will not be re-visiting in his dotage.
Anscombe kicked a late penalty to deny the gritty visitors a draw at the Arms Park and earn a 19-16 victory, but neither team were capable of rising above the distinctly ordinary in demanding blustery conditions.
The Dragons will be pleased with their resolve, but angered their temperament undermined their efforts after Neil Fairbrother was sent off after only half an hour for a flying elbow at a ruck.
Anscombe conceded it was a match the Blues should have won well before his late kick and said: “It was frustrating that we needed that to win.
“No-one will look back at this game with too many fond memories but it’s four points and we needed that. We’ll take it and move on.
“The wind was almost so strong that the kick wasn’t as easy as it appeared, you had to be careful where you kicked. We should have put them away much earlier but silly penalties hurt us and our line-out wasn’t functioning.”
Blues coach John Mulvihill insisted he never had doubts that Anscombe would take the points with his last kick – despite the strong wind.
“I’ve watched Gareth kick a lot over the last six months and he doesn’t miss many. I’d already written in my book that he’d kicked it, before he did, so I was lucky I didn’t have to erase that one out.
“That was a win that we needed, and any way they come, we’re happy with that.
“In the first half we were fantastic with that crazy breeze in front of us, and to go into half time at 6-3, we thought we’d turn a corner.
“When we scored a try to go ahead, I thought our next step would be to go again.
“But credit to the Dragons, they hung in there and made it a real contest. That’s what the Welsh derbies are going to be like.
“We’ve had two tough games against Dragons and probably need to be a little bit better going forward into next week with some of the things we didn’t finish off.
The Dragons had already lost full-back Zane Kirchner to an early yellow card and the absence of him and then Fairbrother allowed the Blues to do just enough to run out winners.
Dan Fish scored a try for Blues with Anscombe kicking four penalties and a conversion.
Jarryd Sage scored the Dragons’ try with Josh Lewis kicking two penalties and a drop goal. Jason Tovey added a conversion.
Dragons captain Cory Hill admitted: “I’m pretty disappointed that we’ve lost a derby game away to the Blues. It’s tough to take.
“There was so much good in our performance and we hung on in there right until the end. It’s amazing when you keep hold of the ball what you can do.
“We knew we were up against it second half with 14 men into a massive wind, but it was a credit to the squad to really put a performance in.”
How anybody other tha Aaron Wainwright was Man of the Match I do not know.