Hammett: Time to see how Cardiff Blues respond to adversity

Hammett's reign in charge of the Blues started in fine fashion with a 41-26 win over Zebre on the opening weekend.

But they were brought back down to earth on Sunday as they suffered a 33-12 defeat at the hands of last season's runners-up Glasgow Warriors.

A break-away try from Sean Lamont helped Warriors to a 13-6 half-time lead with Rhys Patchell adding two penalties for the Blues.

Patchell reduced the deficit to one point but two converted tries from Warriors' substitute Nikola Matawalu put the game beyond reach of Hammett's men.

And the Kiwi hopes his players will have learnt lessons from their defeat as they prepare to welcome unbeaten Ulster to BT Sport Arms Park on Friday evening.

"A good thing for me is this week we will see how a group deal with adversity," Hammett said.

"That's another first for me. I'm really interested to see whether we lift our heads up and say 'we got one on the nose and it's time to go again' or whether we shrug our shoulders. We will see what we get.

"No-one likes losing. It's the worst thing in the world, but it's part of sport, you win and you lose.

"I've been in teams and groups where we have never lost and I have been in other groups where we have lost week on week on week.

"You learn a lot of things from losing. As long as we keep making gains as a group, I won't say I'm happy - because winning makes us happy - but it will certainly go a long way to achieving long-term what we want to get.

"As coaches, as a management group and as players, we have got to move on very quickly.

"We are already looking at Ulster as coaches. It will be about designing a plan for them."

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