That leaves Treviso with one win from their opening three RaboDirect PRO12 encounters, having also lost to Munster in Limerick the previous week.
Treviso now turn their attention to a trip to the Cardiff Arms Park to take on a Blues team with two wins from as many away games but still searching for their first home success.
And Smith admits that this match begins the beginning of a new cycle where Treviso need to step things up.
He said: "I don't like words like growing, I want us to improve. We lost the initiative in the second half. In the first half we were very positive with ball in hand and attacked well and then we lost our way a bit.
"We made too many mistakes, we conceded about three mistakes in five minutes, they took every chance and that's the lesson we need to learn.
"We need to remain positive in attack and be more efficient, and make the most of our chances when we are near the try-line.
"It's another match and you could say it starts our second cycle. We have seen where we are after three matches and adjusted our ambitions accordingly. It's a club which is strong every year with a lot of tradition.
"They are playing at the Arms Park now rather than the football stadium and they are very proud so after losing their first game there they will be desperate to put things right. But we are much better than we have been in previous years and we want to take that into the game against Cardiff.
"Cardiff have won both their away games but have not won at home yet which is a strange stat but we won't worry about that. We will take it one minute at a time."
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