Posted by Another step along the road to the rebuild for Cardiff, and although the scoreline was one of the heaviest so far in terms of defeat, it may well be one of the most important steps taken so far.
Every week I’ve tried to view the Blue and Blacks fixtures on their own merit, but also retained the context of the season and the wider picture at the Arms Park and of Welsh Rugby. Following the events of recent years we are starting from close to scratch when it comes to building a consistently competitive side.
As a result we will occasionally see scorelines such as the 15-54 defeat inflicted on us by Harlequins on Saturday night. Anyone blindly faithful, or downright stupid, enough to believe that we should always be competing with these top teams needs to give their head a wobble, although I wasn’t surprised about the overreaction from sections of social media post-game.
Cardiff started superbly, with two of our best tries of the season finished off by Thomas Young. There was pre-planned variation, and some off-the-cuff skills that are exactly the type of rugby Matt Sherratt has spoken about and the fans wanted to see.
Unfortunately the Blue and Blacks let ourselves down a touch with the basics around the restarts and transitions, coughing the ball up easily to the English side and letting them back into the game soon after we had scored. A 15-21 half-time score still would have been respectable, but a somewhat suspect try awarded on the stroke of the break eroded a lot of hope for the second 40.
From then on it was an almost faultless display of attacking intent, variation and execution from a Harlequins side that has spent the last four-to-five years building their own style of play and ensuring it is implanted on the DNA of every player, coach and staff member in West London. Very few teams have such a clear identity in the way they do.
Building around a young core group of talented players such as Alex Dombrandt, Marcus Smith and Louis Lynagh they have grown from a mid-table Gallagher Premiership side with a rich history in the game, to a team that competes at the top end of the table season-in, season-out, alongside regularly reaching the knockout stage of the Investec Champions Cup.
It’s for that reason that Cardiff’s defeat could be an important step on the road to the rebuild, a living, breathing case study in what Sherratt & co are trying to achieve in the Welsh capital. Quins have set the benchmark and we now strive to match it, so that in a few years we might return to the top table of European rugby and exact some revenge.
As well as that it is hoped that the fixture may also further hammer home the point about what sort of future Welsh professional club rugby has, with another sell-out Anglo-Welsh encounter at the Arms Park generating a brilliant atmosphere that was enjoyed by players and fans alike, following on from the Bath game just prior to Christmas.
Of course we’re aware that league fixtures would not generate quite the same buzz as a European night under the lights, but Cardiff v Harlequins or Bath in a regular season Anglo-Welsh League would surely be a much better occasion than an Italian or South African opposition coming to CAP with no away fans? Perhaps it’s too obvious!
Nevertheless, the road to the rebuild rolls on to Paris next, as the Champions Cup pool stages come to a close with a trip to the La Defense Arena where Racing await. A party on the pitch of an arena that becomes a huge nightclub? Count me in!
#TrustTheProcess
Cardiff Rugby Life 