Posted by I’m a big Christmas guy – I love the build up to the festive period, spending time with friends and family, the excuse to have a beer everyday and all the sports that are on over the two weeks or so.
However, I’m increasingly being left with a sour taste in the mouth when New Year rolls around because an all too predictable situation rears it’s head during the first few days of whatever year we head into. Cardiff Rugby face the Ospreys, start pretty well, the conditions prevent us running away with the game, the opposition revert to a heavily forwards-focused style of play, and steal the win.
To address the elephant in the room early, by “conditions” I don’t mean the pitch. Generally a Welsh winter brings wind and rain that don’t suit the Blue and Blacks more expansive style of play. Switch to the game between the two teams later in the season and the better conditions tend to help us, as we saw at Judgement Day back in April.
The pitch at the Brewery Field on New Year’s Day was nowhere near a professional standard pitch, that’s not something can be argued. It’s not Bridgend RFC’s fault – the weather has been atrocious and they are a community club, but that shouldn’t be the setting for a major Welsh festive derby in a league that wants to be considered the best in the Northern Hemisphere.
None of that is an excuse though, it’s just a statement. The pitch was not why Cardiff lost to the Ospreys. We lost an NYD game with a very similar timeline of events just 12 months ago on the artificial pitch at the Arms Park. We lost this year’s NYD game because once again we allowed our rivals from the West to assert their forward dominance in the second half.
It started well for the Blue and Blacks, riding out an early wave of Ospreys pressure and then starting to get ourselves into the game with some dominant wins in aerial battles, solid set piece work and smart variations off Tomos Williams that kept the opposition defence turning towards their own try line and on the back foot.
The Cardiff 9 was at his zippy best despite the swamp underfoot, with a sharp tap penalty leading to an Owen Lane try, before Mason Grady got the better of Jack Walsh in the air to go under the posts as Tinus De Beer and Cameron Winnett produced an exemplary kicking performance, both from hand and off the tee in the case of the South African.
Unfortunately after the break, Matt Sherratt’s men were unable to repeat those elements of the game that had worked so well in the first half. The aerial battle started to turn as some unforced errors crept into proceedings; both handling and communication allowing the ball to hit the ground regularly and the Ospreys to recover easy possession or have set pieces in attacking areas.
As ever, Toby Booth’s side had picked a quality, and crucially big, pack that started to assert themselves at the maul. With momentum turning the Cardiff errors started becoming more regular, slipping into the defensive game in the form of cheap penalties as a desperation to stop the tide turning reared its head.
Once referee Adam Jones had awarded the home side a penalty try and sent James Botham to the sin bin there was a certain inevitability about how the rest of the game would go, and so it came to pass as the Blue and Blacks were unable to earn any territory and stayed right under the pump with Josh Turnbull taking a second yellow card of the half.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but Sherratt may feel that the decision not to empty the 6/2 bench particularly early in the second half, especially once we went down to 14-men the first time, was a mistake. In truth though I’m not too sure it would have made much difference to the result, especially as the tight five replacements were on the whole lighter than their starting colleagues.
In the absence of the ability to compete up front when Ospreys turn the screw in tough conditions, Cardiff have to be 100% spot on in the kicking, transition and territory game in these New Year encounters, but the second half at the Brewery Field was a long way off that.
A tough one to take after a largely positive December culminating in a blowout victory over the Dragons, but a mini-break of 12 days coming before the switch back to Investec Champions Cup action a week Saturday against Harlequins is a welcome chance to switch off, recover and refocus.
The English side will be looking to play a similarly open game to Cardiff, and after the frustration of being stuck in the mud at Bridgend, the chance to stretch the legs on the Arms Park is one the players should be well up for under the lights on a European night.
#TrustTheProcess
Cardiff Rugby Life 