Sometimes head coaches prefer not to say what they really think in post-match press conferences, sometimes they are in no mood to mince their words.
Cardiff boss Dai Young was the latter of those two after watching his team succumb 35-20 to a 14-man Scarlets side that were comfortably better despite their numerical disadvantage. It was a sobering evening for Cardiff, who were looking to build on their impressive victory over Glasgow following a tough fortnight in South Africa.
But the reality was that Sione Kalamafoni's red card in the 44th minute seemed to galvanise the hosts and their supporters and they roared to victory, with a late James Botham try making the scoreline look a little more respectable than it deserved to be for Cardiff.
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Assessing what had transpired, Young was brutally candid about his team.
"I don't think I'll park it, to be quite honest," he said. "The biggest disappointment is that we seem to go two steps forwards and one back. We've got an opportunity to right a few wrongs from tonight back at home [next week]. But we can't brush this under the carpet because it wasn't good enough.
"We came second best in every area. We have to ask ourselves why and make sure that it doesn't become a regular occurrence. I don't want to make too much of an issue of it but you have to ask questions."
He added: "I thought we were in control in the first 20. We conceded a bit of a sloppy try to let them back in but after that it was all Scarlets. For 60 minutes we came second best everywhere.
"We didn't have any control. We didn't have a set piece which was surprising. That's something we've improved over the last few weeks and it didn't happen for us tonight.
"None of our ball-carriers were going forward and defensively we weren't winning the gainline. It's very difficult to get yourself back in the game. Don't take anything away from the Scarlets because for the last 60 they were by far the better team."
The performance continues an alarming trend for the Blue and Blacks, who are yet to win away from the Arms Park this season. They have claimed some impressive victories at home - the aforementioned Glasgow win and a victory over Leinster no less - but on the road they have really struggled.
Young is conscious of his side getting a bit of a reputation. Seven away games played, seven defeats makes for difficult reading.
"We look a different team when we're away from home compared to at home. That's something we've already talked about internally and we don't want to be known as that team but, at the minute, the evidence is there for us," said Young.
"Most teams have a better home record than away. But what I see is that the players have far more confidence... they make mistakes at home and it doesn't seem to affect their game too much. When we're away, one or two mistakes and you can see the confidence draining out of the team. They linger too much on the mistakes rather than getting on with the next job.
"That's probably something that's a work in progress for us. But until you get those Ws away from home then people are going to question it. We haven't had a truly real good performance away from home yet."
An alarming aspect of the performance was up front, where the Scarlets pack really got on top, particularly in the 10 minutes before half time.
But, in truth, throughout the first half the hosts' unheralded front row of Steffan Thomas, converted hooker Shaun Evans and Javan Sebastian did a real job on their opposite numbers. A deluge of scrum penalties came just before the break and it led to Wales tight-head Dillion Lewis being sent to the bin for 10 minutes, with Sione Kalamafoni scoring a key try at the next scrum.
"I was disappointed with that because it was an area that I was hoping we could target tonight," said Young. "There was nothing in it really until that period.
"I was a little bit surprised that Dillon got the yellow card because he isn't our loose-head. It looked to me like there wasn't much in it but at the end of the day they were in the ascendency there. No complaints. You have to show the referee the right picture, which is looking like you're dominant.
"If you look like you're under a bit of pressure then they're probably going to go against you."
The good news for Cardiff is that the opportunity to put things right isn't far away. In a mouth-watering twist, the Scarlets must now travel to the Welsh capital next Saturday for the reverse fixture. It makes for an intriguing encounter, where the hosts will clearly be out to right a few wrongs.
But in his final assessment, Young did not let himself or his fellow coaches off the hook and insisted they would have to look at themselves before getting down to work next week.
He concluded: "As I said to the players, the only positive thing is that we've got an opportunity to put it right next week. We're really frustrated and disappointed with our performance. The Scarlets were better in every area but we've got to be better than that.
"We have to look at ourselves as a coaching group because some of the messages we're trying to filter into the squad are not hitting the right notes, that's for sure. It's certainly not being consistent. Last week we were very good for 30 or 40 minutes but we didn't get an 80 minute performance. Tonight we had 20 that wasn't too bad but there was 60 that just wasn't good enough."
