Posted by There’s a lot about the role of a Head Coach in professional rugby that seems glamourous. Working with some of the top players, overseeing rugby at the pinnacle of the game, and taking a team around the world to incredible and iconic locations.
However, occasions like Cardiff’s trip to Exeter on Sunday are very much the opposite of that as Corniel Van Zyl watched his much-changed side get thumped by the English opposition. In a drizzly Devon it was a fairly dismal performance as the stark reality of the squad depth available to Welsh sides was exposed in a very public way.
It is impossible for the Blue & Blacks to pick a strongest 23 every week. That is just the way of modern professional rugby. This current block is 10 games in 10 weeks and players would just break at some point in that run if they were wheeled out game-after-game to put their bodies on the line, especially with the high profile Welsh derbies and European pool games included in that.
So some difficult choices have to be made and that resulted in senior players including Alex Mann, Ben Thomas and Josh Adams being given last week off while 10 changes were made to the starting XV to play Exeter. Rightly or wrongly it was Sunday’s game that was chosen as the one to rotate despite there being a home round of 16 game on the line.
Van Zyl will say that the team put out at Sandy Park was still sent there to win, but once the hosts named a strong starting XV with little rotation it was clear a result was unlikely. Cardiff were second best across the board; dominated physically at the gain line, pushed back in the scrum, struggling to win a lineout and unable to create anything in attack. A first nilling since a November 2020 trip to Edinburgh.
When you’re still operating under a heavily restricted playing budget the depth in the squad just isn’t there. Add in players returning from lengthy injury spells and new combinations in key areas of the field, and it is a recipe for disaster. The key question for the Blue & Blacks is whether that totally excuses the performance though?
The answer, for me, is no. That performance was still some way below the level that the players should expect of themselves, that they should expect as a squad and that we know they are capable of. Sure, winning was an uphill struggle, but there should still have been a competitive element to Sunday’s game and there just wasn’t.
I’ve got no issue with not prioritising a home round of 16 game in the Challenge Cup. When you’re in the top four of the United Rugby Championship with a home fixture up next then the logic is there to aim for that win, which even supporters who might prefer a Cup run can appreciate even if they don’t necessarily agree with following it.
A few extra bonus points on the road at Exeter and Stade Francais might have been handy, but two home bonus point wins to qualify for the knockout stages – a trip to Treviso to face Benetton as it turns out – is a good return from this European sojourn.
Having said that though, it will only be seen as a success if Cardiff beat that same Benetton in the league on Saturday night. Claim that huge victory at the Arms Park to solidify a play-off spot going into the Six Nations period and it sets up a massive second half of the campaign through the test window and into the final run of games.
Lose to the Italians and all of a sudden the Blue & Blacks are staring down the barrel of four defeats in their last six games, a trip to Ulster without our Cymru internationals and some nervous times looking over our shoulders at teams hunting a top eight place with Leinster and then a trip to South Africa for the annual double header to come.
There’s been a few of these games so far this season for Van Zyl’s side where it feels like a statement win is needed, but this is bigger than them all. Fully rested, at full tilt, under the lights at the Arms Park. Let’s send a message that this Cardiff side are genuine play-off contenders.
Cardiff Rugby Life 