Posted by Perhaps it’s because it really is closer to their Pontcanna abodes than it is for most Cardiff players and supporters, but the Scarlets are starting to make themselves very at home at the Arms Park.
It’s frustrating to lose Welsh derbies, to say the least, especially home derbies. They’re the first games you look for on the fixture announcements and the ones everyone wants to win to try and earn the title of top side in Wales, and get a bit of gloating in over mates and online. I’ve no doubt the players and staff feel that too.
So when the Blue & Blacks fell to defeat against our West Walian rivals on Saturday there was naturally a lot of disappointment from supporters. Criticism of the performance was prevalent, with some mention of individuals both on the field and in the coaching box. Was it actually that bad though? For my money the answer is no, once the emotion is removed.
Cardiff’s players and coaches will be disappointed with elements of the performance, without doubt. Some soft tries being conceded again, although not quite to the same extent as against Glasgow a week previously, too many turnovers being conceded and too often conceding back-to-back penalties to allow the Scarlets to relieve pressure.
However, despite all that the game was eminently winnable for the home side on Saturday, and the Blue & Blacks more than put themselves in a position to do just that.
55% possession and 54% territory, with over a quarter of that possession coming in the opposition 22. Three tries, nine line breaks, over 300 post-contact metres. The attacking numbers are great on paper, but that figure of 19 turnovers conceded meant that, unfortunately, we literally saw the chance to secure victory slip through our fingers on multiple occasions.
Reasons for that are two-fold, to my eyes. Firstly, there was obvious fatigue out there during proceedings. Injuries to an already small squad has resulted in a lot of players starting four games on the bounce and racking up north of 275 minutes out of the 320 played. With the likes of Josh McNally and Rey Lee-Lo being comfortably on the top side of 30, legs were looking very heavy at key times.
Secondly, there are still changes in the Cardiff attack that are being adjusted to. On a strictly personnel level, there has been a lot of change in the half-backs with Tomos Williams departing, and Aled Davies and Callum Sheedy arriving. With Tinus De Beer being forced off in the first half there was also disruption to deal with in-game.
Then on a personnel level impacting the game plan, the Blue & Blacks have had different attributes of player turning out so far this season. The pace of Seb Davies, James Botham, Thomas Young, Mackenzie Martin and Alex Mann has either been totally or partly missing from the attack, while the x factor of Tomos is very difficult to replace.
It seems that Jockey’s men are still trying to balance being an exciting and expansive attacking side, with having more physicality but slightly less mobility up front. There is learning to do around when to be more direct, and when to play to width, when to slow the tempo down and when to inject some pace. That is difficult at the best of times, let alone when trying to develop partnerships in key positions.
Yet the signs are encouraging in terms of getting in good attacking shapes and putting ourselves in try scoring positions. It would be a lot more concerning if we were falling to defeats against close rivals while not firing a shot or not looking like winning the game. That was certainly not the case on Saturday, it was just that the shots missed the target and we couldn’t quite grasp the win.
Results-wise it may not get any easier immediately, with a trip to Edinburgh coming up this coming weekend. They will likely be stacked with their Scottish internationals before they enter their national team camp ahead of the Autumn Internationals, and are coming off the back of an impressive win over the Stormers at The Hive.
Cardiff, meanwhile, are likely to rotate with the likes of Will Davies-King, Seb Davies and Thomas Young set for their first appearances of the season, while Dafydd Hughes, Rory Thornton, Mackenzie Martin and Gabriel Hamer-Webb could make their first starts of the campaign.
Fresh legs will help with the energy of the side, but the cohesion of the team may take a back seat again making it tough to get anything out of the game.
The aim though should be to continue to progress the attacking game, and particularly to prevent any soft Edinburgh tries being scored, with individuals putting their hands up and giving Matt Sherratt a selection headache for the final game of the fixture block at home against Ulster the following week. That is a big game!
#TrustTheProcess
Cardiff Rugby Life 