The four-times Celtic champions bounced back from three defeats in a row to earn a bonus-point win against their Welsh rivals at the Liberty Stadium and they now sit second in the RaboDirect PRO12 table.
But, while the result gave the Ospreys exactly what they needed following a frustrating few weeks, Gibbes insists the performance still needs fine tuning ahead of their upcoming clash with Munster at Thomond Park.
“We’re pretty happy to be out of that little losing sequence and back in the winners’ circle, so that feels pretty good,” said Gibbes, after a strong second-half showing saw them turn a narrow interval lead into a 40-17 success.
“We dropped Ulster here at home and that hurt us as a group in this competition. To then have back-to-back losses in the Heineken Cup meant we really needed to bounce back. We showed a bit of grit. That performance has put us in a good space, but next week comes around pretty quickly.
“We said during the week that we set high expectations. We’re happy with the bonus-point win and we’ll definitely take it but there are things there that we could have done a lot better.
“We made hard work of some opportunities out there and we let the Dragons back into the game when we had them on the rack.
“Everyone was trying really hard – you can’t knock this group for effort – but, again, we just weren’t clinical enough or ruthless enough at times when we needed to be.”
The Ospreys will be without a host of big names when they travel to Limerick to face league leaders Munster on Saturday as Wales make their final preparations for their Dove Men Series opener with South Africa on November 9.
But plenty of players have stepped up already this season and Gibbes is convinced there is enough strength in depth to ensure that they won’t be hit too hard by the absence of the likes of Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric.
“We spoke about the importance of getting that Dragons game right and getting ourselves ready,” added Gibbes.
“We’ve got another group coming through now. That’s testament to the development programme that we’ve been running here that we’ve got young guys coming through who are going to be able to step into the breach.
“Guys will get their opportunities now that the Welsh and Canadian internationals are away. There were a few young guys out there against the Dragons who have come through the system and that’s pretty exciting.”
