Opposition view: 'We can keep our heads high', says Cardiff boss
Cardiff head coach Corniel van Zyl says his side can keep their heads high after the performance they produced against Saints on Sunday evening.
Cardiff enjoyed plenty of possession and territory at DPD Stadium at Franklin's Gardens, but they struggled to make it count at times.
After having a Tom Manz scored ruled out before the break, Cardiff headed in 14-0 down at half-time.
But they started the second half strongly, notching two tries to cut the Saints lead to two points.
The black, green and gold responded well though, taking the game away from their opponents thanks to tries from George Hendy and Fraser Dingwall.
But van Zyl was proud of the effort of his players in the 28-12 defeat.
"In the first half we had a few entries, we just couldn't get any points, and the try that was disallowed probably took a bit of momentum out of it," the Cardiff boss said.
"But it's not an easy place to come, against the PREM champs and ultimately we can keep our heads high and we can look forward to next week.
"There's no hiding from it because the lineouts didn't go as planned and that's definitely the first work-on that will be needed ahead of next week.
"Scrums, we did fight it out.
"In the first half we lost the aerial contest and the scraps around it, but in the second half that was way better, which is what we focus on a lot, trying to get that possession so we can get the territory, and that definitely helped us in the second half."