Posted by A cold and wet January night, a strong Benetton side with a big pack, Cardiff coming off the back of a heavy loss at Exeter following the festive Welsh derbies. It’s not a setting that fills any supporters of the Blue & Blacks with much hope.
Those are conditions we don’t just struggle in, for many years we barely even functioned in them. Beaten up at the set piece and at the gain line, bullied off the breakdown, forced to overplay and make errors or conceded turnovers, struggle to get any hold in the aerial game. Spending 80 minutes praying for the relative dry and calm of spring to come so we can win again.
Yet, as Saturday once again demonstrated, this Cardiff side is different to those that have come before.
The scrum is solid. Not destructive – it’s only won eight scrum penalties this season – but it’s 96% successful on our own put in providing the base to exit cleanly or launch an attack. Similarly an 87% lineout is a solid mid-table stat that gives us a bit of a platform, with a much better maul accompanying it.
This Blue & Blacks side are much more in the possession and territory battle; playing in the right areas, holding on to possession for longer periods, not losing the turnover head-to-head and managing to kick more and retain more of the more kicks. Even on a night where the hosts made no line breaks, they can still be right in the game.
And then come the final quarter of a tight and tetchy game, Cardiff are in supreme control. 74% possession in the final 10 minutes, turning Benetton and asking them to go from deep, avoiding silly penalties to let them out for free, and then backing that up with 153 tackles at 92% to restrict the opposition to just two line breaks of their own.
It’s underpinned by one of the best tight fives that the Blue & Blacks have had for many years, led by two men at opposite ends of their career.
On one hand there is 35-year-old Josh McNally who continues to churn huge performances out week-after-week in the engine room. The breakdown securing in attack, the disruption with that giant right boot in attack, the leadership when the game stops and, particularly on Saturday, his maul defence was impenetrable.
Then just in front of him is 23-year-old Rhys Barratt who is in just his first full season of senior professional rugby but improving with such a trajectory that there is now an argument he is Cardiff’s first choice loosehead. A willing carrier, a committed defender and a scrummager beyond his years, he is a very exciting young player.
The balance of the squad right now is very good, and perhaps most encouragingly there is a feeling that the Blue & Blacks can go to Ulster next week shorn of the members of the Cymru squad going into camp for the Guinness Six Nations and actually push for a result. After this weekend’s statement win on the way to the United Rugby Championship play-offs, that would be huge.
It’s the way that heads are starting to turn at the Arms Park but for the players and coaches I’m sure they will remain dead set focused on the next challenge in front of them before dreaming of what could be come the end of the season.
Let’s not run before we have fully mastered walking!
Cardiff Rugby Life 