Mark Hammett’s men turned the tables on the Newport Gwent Dragons by clinching a tense 11-9 victory at Rodney Parade. It was their second win from three matches over the Christmas period, which leaves them in eighth in the PRO12, two places outside the Champions Cup positions.
And Warburton wants to keep the ball rolling in 2015, he said: “Looking at the three Christmas derbies it’s two out of three wins for us, which isn’t bad. I think there’s still a bit of a gap off that sixth place, we’ve still got to get some results.
“We’ve got Leinster at home, which is tough next up in 10 days’ time and then into European rugby. We won’t have another Pro12 game for a few weeks after that, so it’s quite important we win that next one and we’ll edge closer to that top six then.”
The tide has turned for the Blues, who suffered a nightmare start to the season. But they now have four wins from their last six matches. And the Wales skipper was ecstatic after getting back on the winning trail.
He said: “That was a proper derby game, very close, really hotly contested at the breakdown and it’s been pretty similar over the last two weeks. Every time I play against the Dragons they make it really competitive at the ruck area and they did the same again.
“There’s some players in their back-row very hard over the ball: Taulupe Faletau did well, Nic Cudd, Andrew Coombs is a nuisance to play against.
“They’re great games to play and the crowd was fantastic here at Rodney Parade and made a lot of noise. With a lot of friends on the opposition they’re great Christmas derbies to play in.”
