Posted by Rugby is back, Cardiff have a bonus point win, and yet this View from the South Terrace may well be less positive than 90% of last season’s edition? What a weird state of affairs.
The Blue and Blacks got the job done on Friday at the Arms Park, beating Zebre 22-17 and pocketing five points to get the United Rugby Championship underway. It was what supporters asked for, what the club needed to get a kinder first half of the season off to a flying start, and what we got. Yet leaving the ground after the game it was more subdued than some of the tight losses of 2023/24, why is that?
To put it simply, it wasn’t quite the Cardiff that we’ve come to expect. Last year it was a lot of attacking, expansive and high-paced rugby. There was entertainment even if the final result didn’t quite follow, with plenty of young players having the opportunity to express themselves with minimal pressure.
Fast forward a few months though and times are beginning to change – those young players now find themselves as regular Wales internationals, there’s an awareness that the patience around the rebuilding of the squad will not last forever, and a summer of numerous signings have added to that expectation of improvement on the pitch.
With that need for results, as well as having to bed in plenty of new faces, the game plan was a very different one for the Blue & Blacks against Zebre. There was a lot of kicking, and I mean A LOT of kicking. We hardly utilised the ball anywhere behind the opposition 10-metre line, instead choosing to put the ball up in the air and compete, usually off the boot of Aled Davies at scrum-half.
Unfortunately that tactic struggled to produce positive outcomes as the visitors were largely dominant in the air or when it came to dropping on the bouncing ball, depriving Cardiff of possession and territory, and leaving us to do a lot of defending.
In the first half that wasn’t necessarily a problem. Zebre were devoid of ideas in attack, conceded a few penalties and made a few handling errors that gifted Jockey’s side field position. It only took four entries into the opposition 22, but we came out with three tries thanks to two perfect Callum Sheedy kicks and a smart lineout move finished off by the powerful Dan Thomas.
However, by the time the tackle count crept up over 200 and legs got heavy by the mid-point of the second half the kick chase had disintegrated and the kicking game was just gifting the away side possession on halfway. A few tired bodies in defence allowed the Italians over the try line and the final score was not comfortable by any stretch.
By then the bonus point had been wrapped up when Josh McNally pushed over from close range, and in truth Zebre never had the quality to snatch a victory at the Arms Park, but the concern is that the majority of teams in the URC would have left with a victory on Friday night with Cardiff playing in the way they did.
The other element of concern for this writer was that the Blue & Blacks coaches did not seem inclined to change anything. Not at half-time when it was clear that Zebre were unlikely to punish being turned over on halfway if we played a bit of rugby in the middle third, nor when the half-backs were changed on 65 minutes and it was clear that kick chasers were tiring.
Having said all that though, it was a bonus point win. This is a team that did not win a lot last season, needs to learn how to win and develop confidence in themselves seeing out the game, and with a lot of new faces and new leaders needs to adjust to working together as a unit. They fought hard, even if the battle was mostly self-inflicted, and ground out five points.
In round one last season we threw away what should have been a home win over Benetton, while we also failed to beat Zebre out in Parma a few weeks later as we snatched a draw from the jaws of victory. By both these metrics Cardiff are now ahead of where they were last campaign out.
You can only play what’s in front of you, and the Blue & Blacks now have a base to build from against tougher opponents coming across the next month, starting with a trip to Scarlets next weekend. The aerial game will have to improve, the variation of the kicking needs stepping up, and the cohesion and bravery of the attack will need to be in place to fire some shots.
Pocket the points and off down West! #TrustTheProcess
Cardiff Rugby Life 