Otago scored a 13-11 win to get off the bottom of the ITM Cup table, although it was no spectacle.
Mooney agreed it was not a pretty watch.
"In the first half we just turned over so much ball that they must have had the ball for nearly 35 minutes.
"We were pretty average in attack but to our credit we scrambled well in defence," he said.
"Although they hurt themselves at times we had to do a lot of tackling in that first half and we kept working hard there.
"We spoke about that at halftime. How they had had all the ball but hadn't been able to score."
Mooney said the errors from his side come down to a lack of concentration from players.
"They can all catch and pass so it just was a loss of concentration. We just turned over so much ball and put ourselves under huge pressure.
"Right at the end there we gave away a silly penalty and that really summed it up.
"But we won. We'll take it. We've played better and lost but that is the nature of this competition. Anyone can beat anyone."
He said if players did not prepare well during the week then it might have consequences on match day.
"If everyone makes one or two errors in the game then if you add that up then you are going to have 30 odd errors. And that is way too many."
He could not recall a game in which he has been involved in which no points had been scored by halftime.
"It's a game we can't dwell on. We won and now we've got to be a whole lot better against Northland."
Otago hosts Northland at Carisbrook next Sunday.
Young hooker Liam Coltman left the field after 10 minutes with a recurrence of a shoulder injury and Mooney said his immediate playing future was unclear.
