And McLaughlin believes the credit for those two scores lies firmly with backs coach Neil Doak.
"We talked all week about being patient," he said. "Last year when we played these guys they were the two most patient games of rugby we played all year.
"We knew that if we could just be patient the opportunities would come.
"One of our tries was an unbelievable set-piece play and all credit to Neil [Doak] and the lads they polished it off superbly.
"To beat Cardiff here and to go top of the league, we're exceptionally happy with the result.
"In the second half we didn't play with the same intensity but it was pretty windy out there and there were difficult conditions.
"We were playing against a fairly strong breeze and yes we made some errors but we were trying to play.
"We were two tries up and we wanted to try and play and we're a little bit disappointed we should have had more points on the board but, here, it's Cardiff we're playing it's a 20-3 victory and we can't be too critical of that."
Having taken maximum points from their previous two matches, Cardiff Blues coach Gareth Baber admitted Cave's tries were a sucker punch.
He said: "We managed to hold them for about half an hour in the first half and then they created two opportunities and took them and that really sealed the game up for them.
"It was a bad day at the office. You have them. We have to regroup and make sure it doesn't happen next weekend at home to Munster."
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