Posted by Cardiff’s final day of the regular season win over Swansea, coupled with Ebbw Vale’s defeat away at Carmarthen Quins, ensured the Blue & Blacks finished top of the Super Rygbi Cymru table as the season progressed into the knockout phase.
It capped a remarkable turnaround for Dan Fish’s men who at one point were as far back as 20 points off the leaders, but a catastrophic collapse from the Steelmen and a run of nine straight league wins stretching back to mid-December saw the Rags turn things around and – at some point – lift the trophy commissioned for the regular season winners.
Incredibly it now means that Cardiff have finished top of either the SRC or the old top tier Welsh Premiership four times in the last five completed seasons, having also been top and on course for the title when the Premiership was disrupted by the covid-19 pandemic.
It’s a huge vindication of the work of Gruff Rees and the decision of the club’s rugby management to operate the RFC as the Rags, ticking the box of ensuring the team remains competitive alongside the plentiful evidence of the other ticked box in the form of developing players for the first team, more of which we’ll cover later as this latest crop of players once again excites.
There’s also a big milestone for Dan Fish as Head Coach, with this squad now very much his own having taken over from Steve Law in the summer of 2024, and the former full-back having to overcome some early season struggles to get the campaign on track.
However, what escaped the Blue & Blacks in the first season of the SRC as a competition was the play-off victories as a quarter-final win over Bridgend was followed up by a disappointing semi-final defeat at the hands of Newport at the Arms Park.
There were two elements that fed into that limp through the knockout stages last season. The first was a slump at the end of the regular season as Cardiff were narrowly beaten at home by Llandovery before a much-changed side was thumped away at Pontypool on the last day. The second was the absence of senior academy members taken to South Africa with the first team.
Fast forward 12 months though and the outlook is very different. That aforementioned winning streak has seen the Rags string four wins together across four weeks going into a Saturday off last weekend, with senior academy members very much available for a tilt at the play-offs which will hopefully give them a valuable experience before stepping up to senior professional rugby.
Pending injuries the Blue & Blacks could have Ioan Emanuel, Cam Tyler-Grocott, Joe Cowell, Will Davies-King, Tom Howe, Tom Cottle, Sonny McCabe, Lucca Alexander-White, Evan Rees, Lucas De La Rua, Sion Davies, Ieuan Davies, Harri Wilde, Lloyd Lucas, Steff Emanuel, Osian Darwin-Lewis, Elijah Evans, Matty Young and Rhys Cummings available to them.
The only name missing is Tom Bowen who is likely to be getting first team minutes across the end of the United Rugby Championship season, but with Dewi Cross having scored three tries in his last three games after an uncharacteristic dry spell through the middle part of the year there is absolutely no immediate panic there.
With the core of the semi-professional squad in Alun Rees, Ethan Phillips, Craig Hudd, Nathan Hudd, Aled Ward, Ethan Lloyd, Jason Harries, Joe Goodchild and Cross playing as well as ever, added to by the excellent Ben Fry in the back row, there’s no reason at all that Fishy’s men can’t target going all the way in the play-offs.
In fact, after a great run through the second half of the campaign, it would almost be a shame if the Blue & Blacks didn’t kick on to at least a go at the Final where we’d have home advantage. It’s all to play for but Cardiff are in a great spot. Uppa the mighty Rags!
Cardiff Rugby Life 