Tito demands Cardiff Blues’ best

Skipper Paul Tito says the Blues need to rediscover their top form

Cardiff Blues skipper Paul Tito admits their Magners League play-off hopes rest on winning their last five games, starting on Friday at the Ospreys.

The Blues lost 16-15 to Munster at Cardiff City Stadium on Friday to leave them fifth.

After the second-placed Ospreys, they travel to Connacht, host Treviso then journey to Newport Gwent Dragons and play-off rivals the Scarlets.

“It looks like we have to win them all,” said the Kiwi lock.

“And it’s no easy feat going down to the Ospreys and winning – and the Scarlets and Dragons as well.”

The Blues’ end-of-season run last term took them to the Amlin Challenge Cup final in which they beat Toulon in Marseille.

Tito hopes they can produce a similar effort this time around.

He said: “It’s there for us. If we know we can turn up and perform like we did at the back end of last year we can win these games.

We had a couple of weeks off and trained well, we just probably didn’t take it out on to the field

“But things aren’t really going for us at the moment, but we’re a tight team and we’ll stick together and we’ll turn up on Monday and put our hands up where things didn’t go so well and soldier on for next week.

“We’re still there or thereabouts. We know we’ve got a fight on our hands and we’ve got a tight squad and we’ll give it our best shot.”

But the 32-year-old acknowledges their form must improve after falling to defeat by Munster

“It was very disappointing,” said Tito. “We had a couple of weeks off and trained well, we just probably didn’t take it out on to the field.

“I think the attitude and commitment was there, but once again our finishing and our set-piece let us down so there’s a tough five weeks to go.

“We didn’t start well, but I thought we fought back well. We were only down by one point and they most probably deserved to be ahead at half-time a lot more than that.

“So we did fight back well and we just couldn’t really convert it in the end.

“At crucial times we turned the ball over and at this day and age in the game that loses you matches.

“If Parksy Dan Parks had got that drop-goal over in the end we’d all be patting each other on the back.

“But it was a quiet dressing room in there as it should be and we’ve got a big battle to make the top four now.”