WE'RE back at Rodney Parade this evening and hopefully, weather permitting, we can play some running rugby to get back to winning ways against Treviso.

The festive period wasn't kind to us with a pair of defeats to Cardiff Blues and the Ospreys, with the second of those a particularly frustrating one.

I went to The Lamb with the aim of not talk about rugby but ultimately it always becomes a talking point with friends and people eager to tell me where we went wrong.

I was told countless times that we had kicked the ball too much and that we should have kept hold of it more. Even though that may have been slightly prettier, it would no doubt have caused us more problems than solutions.

There was a lot of debate about whether the game should have gone ahead and the Ospreys didn't seem keen but we were keen to remedy the previous week and play in a big Welsh derby.

After a week of planning and felt we were in a good position to get a win but conditions were heavy and the ball was slippy.

That didn't suit us – we wanted to play rugby – but in rugby you have to adapt.

That's something that we didn't do in the European Rugby Challenge Cup defeat at Worcester; it might have been a 4G pitch but they were monsoon conditions and they adjusted to them better than us at the time.

So I have no doubt that a kicking approach was the right one against the Ospreys and it's worth remembering that it takes two to tango, they were kicking it back to us just as much! They just had the better outcomes more than we did.

I understand the supporters' frustration and I almost found it amusing listening to the crowds jeers every time the ball flew over me on the halfway line as I stood with my hands on my hips – I felt like the net – but that's the way it had to be.

It does however baffle me even more when ex-pros criticise the amount of kicking because they should know that it would be rugby suicide to just run it from anywhere.

Modern rugby can be a war of attrition and it's about staying in the battle. For all the criticism that came our way, we did that.

It was only because of what is an outstanding, well-organised defence from a strong Ospreys side going for the title that we were unable to break them down to score tries.

We have lost two derbies because of a number of mistakes in each game that you could count on one hand but that is the high standards of professional rugby and why you can't just play 'jouer' rugby.

'Pretty' rugby can hurt you and we can't afford the luxury of a Beauden Barrett or a Julian Savea who will do it all on their own; we do have some quality players but can't just fling it wide to Ashton Hewitt and expect them to do something special.

Of course we try and play what is in front of us but there is a difference between negative rugby and smart rugby, we just didn't execute well enough.

That was frustrating because there were some strong aspects to our game – we scrummaged really well, took their lineout apart and were much better at the contact area than we had been against the Blues – so we do have plenty of positives to take into a big game against Treviso.

It's been another quick turnaround and there are some bruised and battered bodies after two tough derbies. If we can repeat that same intensity, attitude and aggression from the Ospreys game then I am confident that we can start another home winning run.