Diolch Jockey

It’s the news we all feared was on the horizon but didn’t want to accept was coming – Matt Sherratt has stepped down as Cardiff Head Coach with immediate effect to join Steve Tandy’s Cymru coaching ticket as Attack Coach.

From the moment he made a good impression with his man management and media skills during the second half of the Six Nations it felt like there was an inevitability about this moment, and that was only cemented when he led the national team to a first win in nearly two years on the Japan tour over the summer.

That had all come on the back of some incredible work with Cardiff over the previous 18 months which had seen his stock rise immeasurably, going from a career assistant coach to a respected head coach and cementing his spot as one of the Arms Park’s modern day favourites despite the relatively short time he’s had the top job.

It’s fair to say that Jockey, as he’s affectionately known, was already a popular figure around the club. His two-year stint as Attack Coach between 2016-2018 brought with it the development of some talented young academy graduates, the emergence of an exciting style of play and ultimately the lifting of the 2017/18 European Challenge Cup along with Danny Wilson.

Fast forward to the summer of 2023 though and it’s from there that Sherratt really cements himself as a cult hero in his own right. Having returned to the club to run the attack under Dai Young in the summer of 2021 he was thrust into the hotseat when the Director of Rugby departed at the end of the 2022/23 season and inherited a nightmare scenario.

After the club had fluffed their way through to ultimately parting ways with Young, and Welsh rugby as a whole went through the annual rigmarole of failing to agree a deal between the Welsh Rugby Union and professional clubs leaving budgets up in the air, Jockey began pre-season training with just eight players turning up to the Arms Park.

It wasn’t until the September that he finally got a squad together, along with a coaching ticket of sorts, although that only included Gethin Jenkins running the defence on a part-time consultancy basis and players would continue to arrive throughout the course of the 2023/24 campaign. Results were few and far between, but that was not the story of the season.

From the get-go Sherratt was open and honest in his communication with the media and supporters. The aim of the season wasn’t about challenging for trophies or play-offs, it was about developing an incredibly young and raw squad into something that could compete in the medium term, and it’s that which has earned him such plaudits.

There will be some online commenters who point to the 47-year-old’s win/loss record as “proof” that he’s not a good coach but that completely ignores the context laid out above. The real proof of his coaching prowess is in the improvements made by Cardiff as a team, and in the individual progression of those in the playing squad.

From four wins and a draw across all competitions in 2023/24, to nine wins and a draw across all competitions in 2024/25, the step up was so stark it took the Blue and Blacks to within a whisker of qualifying for the United Rugby Championship play-offs, meanwhile a number of players not only established themselves in senior professional rugby but made the step up to the test level.

Rhys Barratt, Evan Lloyd, Efan Daniel, Teddy Williams, Alex Mann, Mackenzie Martin, Ellis Bevan, Ben Thomas, Mason Grady, Cam Winnett and Jacob Beetham are all young players who got their first proper go in the first team, stepped up to test level, or did both under the stewardship of Jockey.

He was also able to oversee the improvement of squad players, often picking up guys who were on the way out of the door at the Arms Park, had been left clubless elsewhere or who hadn’t been given a proper opportunity at other teams, as the likes of Danny Southworth, Rhys Litterick, Ben Donnell, Alun Lawrence, Johan Mulder, Harri Millard and Iwan Stephens all became key Cardiff players.

More than that though will always rate Sherratt highly in the pantheon of Blue & Blacks Head Coaches because of the way he went about building that relationship between the players, coaches and supporters.

That’s not to say it was broken when he took over but there was a feeling of distance there after a number of less than optimal circumstances since rugby had returned post-covid. Jockey’s aforementioned communication and openness really brought those of us in the stands at the Arms Park on the journey with the playing group through that 2023/24 season and beyond.

Even though there weren’t many wins there were plenty of superb occasions at the famous old ground and, on a personal level, it really helped me fall back in love with supporting the club. The narrative around it, the style of play, the majority young and homegrown squad, the whole culture of Cardiff Rugby, all made it a genuinely exciting two years.

Of course it’s a shame to see Sherratt moving on, and I suspect there will always be a “what if” element on both sides around what he could have achieved had he stayed in charge of the Blue & Blacks with the upward trajectory hopefully continuing over the next few years, but it’s understandable why a full-time tilt at test level and the Rugby World Cup was too good to turn down.

There will be time to pick over whether it’s the right decision, how the Welsh Rugby Union have handled it (spoiler: incompetently), and what is next for Cardiff in the coming days, but for now it’s thank you and goodbye Jockey.

Thank you for the young players you’ve developed, the signings you’ve brought in, the attacking style you’ve implemented, for Bath, Harlequins, the continued wins over Dragons, Judgement Day and that bonus point victory over Munster, and mostly thank you for being a good, honest rugby man in charge of our great club.

There’s no doubt at all that Cardiff Rugby is in a better spot now than when you stepped in during the summer of 2023. Good luck with everything!