The Guinness PRO12 leaders were beaten by a Welsh rival for the first time in 17 matches in their 22-10 defeat at Parc Y Scarlets last weekend. But they have the chance to reassert their derby dominance on Sunday when they welcome the Dragons to the Liberty Stadium.
And Gibbes wants his side to take out their frustrations on Lyn Jones’ men this weekend.
He said: “We’ve spoken about it in the shed and there’s not much we can do about that now. It’s going to be pretty painful looking back and we’re going to have to take a lot of learning out of it, as we do every week. Our focus is to get the performance right for next week because this competition waits for no one and we’ve got the Dragons on Sunday, another Welsh derby, and they are going to be coming at us hard.
“They’ll be looking at that tape I would say and putting a strategy together so we’ve got to make sure we are better.”
The Dragons suffered mixed fortunes in the festive derbies. They overcame the Cardiff Blues at BT Sport Arms Park but failed to back up the result a week later and slipped to a tight home defeat.
And Gibbes knows they will have to perform better if they are to extend their lead at the top of the table.
He said: “There are some boys out there who’ve served us pretty well over the last few months, in terms of our injuries and whatever, and maybe that showed by the end tonight. That’s taking nothing away from the effort, and they kept going to the end to put some respectability into the performance and result, but we all know we have to be better than that. That’s the challenge for the next couple of weeks and two big home games against the Dragons and Northampton. We have to perform better.”
