There was an upbeat message from Newport's coach last night, as team backer Tony Brown, pictured, watched his side crash to a 20-14 defeat by Cardiff.

New coach Ian McIntosh had seen a near full strength Newport side go down to a Cardiff team lacking 10 regulars in his first game in charge.

But he refused to be downcast about it and predicted: "There is a lot to come from this team. As long as we come away learning from this we'll be the better for it.

"I'll have a good look at it, and get a feel for it, but if you win away that's money in the bank, if you lose away then you're still even."

Putting his finger on the reasons for the defeat, McIntosh said, "We set ourselves up, but we gave the ball away.

"There were seven line-outs in the last part of the first half and they won them all. We let them into the game by making mistakes. You can't do that and expect to win.

"But it was encouraging the way we came back and it showed we had the character. "Maybe the boys were uptight to start with, but they made uncharacteristic mistakes and we had to put on fresh legs and change tactics."

McIntosh singled out Cardiff's teenage outside half Nick Robinson, saying: "He murdered our mistakes."

Fellow South African Rudy Joubert, in charge of Cardiff, said, "We needed this to get going, I'm proud of the boys and this is the start."

Newport were today waiting to hear whether Joost van der Westhuizen will join them next week.

The South African Rugby Union and van der Westhuizen were holding a crucial meeting to sort out the player's immediate future.

See also match report: Newport blow big opprtunity