Posted by Death, taxes, and Cardiff Rugby dominating the game at home to Scarlets but failing to get over the line as their away support walks back to Pontcanna particularly pleased.
Perhaps it’s not quite as common as that, but it’s starting to feel like it. The Blue & Blacks seem to have a mental block when it comes to getting over the line against Welsh opposition during this middle part of the season. Well, except against Dragons, of course.
Friday night was 80 minutes of sheer frustration for Corniel Van Zyl’s men. The stats are outrageous. 60% possession, 67% territory, 175 carries, 300 post-contact metres, forced Scarlets into conceding 15 penalties and three yellow cards, a 93% lineout, a 100% scrum, three line breaks but outscored two tries to three and losing 17-21 on the scoreboard.
Cardiff did everything but get over the try line enough to score. So where did the attack go wrong? It was a bit blunt at times, and a bit too over-complicated at others. Particularly when playing with a man or two advantage there was a desperation to play to width and over-stretch ourselves, serving up turnover opportunities on a plate.
In the red zone the Blue & Blacks lacked control, either calling plays with inherent risk like popping the ball from the base to a ball carrier or trying to bring a dummy runner short and play behind them. There was also no handle on the tempo of the pick-and-go game with carriers and latches not ready to have a maximum impact.
Questions will be asked of Jonny Goodridge and the general attack coaching since Matt Sherratt left. It certainly has not fired on all cylinders, but whether that’s down to the disruption, the lack of clarity of over roles or the inexperience of individuals in the coaching group is difficult to say from outside of the Arms Park bubble.
Friday night was not purely down to coaching though and the players must take some responsibility for the skill execution in key moments. There are a number of squad members who no doubt are eyeing up a spot in Cymru’s Six Nations squad early in the new year, but they will not advance their case by not stepping up to the plate in a derby, let alone a test match.
There’s the age-old adage of form going out the window in derbies and that they are purely down to performance on the day. To an extent that is true – there is no doubt more on the emotional level of the players during the 80 minutes in these games than others – but that doesn’t mean that Cardiff shouldn’t harness how good we’ve been so far this season to get to the right level.
It seems we almost get inside our own head for some of these games, when in fact there is nothing wrong with carrying a little bit of confidence, swagger or even arrogance into the fixture and using the visit of Scarlets wanting to come to the capital to knock us off our perch as the motivation to get up for a battle.
That is something that Cardiff have to rectify before Dragons next up on Boxing Day and then Ospreys on New Year’s Day. Despite some question marks over some areas of play I still have no doubt that this is a very good rugby team and, particularly at home, can beat anyone.
The next few weeks are about more than just being good at rugby though, and we need to get that right to secure crucial wins on the road to the United Rugby Championship play-offs. Revenge over the Scarlets can wait, but it is definitely owed!
Cardiff Rugby Life 