Posted by When Cardiff started the great rebuild in the summer of 2023, the path back to competitiveness seemed well set out. It wasn’t a straight road by any means, but the directions were fairly easy to follow.
Season one was all about blooding youngsters and developing an identity. That was a huge tick in the box despite only winning four games in all competitions. Season two was about turning some of those losses into victories and, again, mission successful. Nine wins in all competitions and narrowly missing out on the United Rugby Championship play-offs.
However, there was nothing in the travel guide about losing your Head Coach on the eve of season three, when narrowly missing the play-offs should be turning in to qualifying for the post-season and returning to the top table of European rugby, the Champions Cup.
Matt Sherratt had undoubtedly been the ‘face the of the franchise’ – to borrow an American sports term – over the first two years of the rebuild. Thrust into the Head Coach job having been a career assistant coach, his clear control of the narrative around the young team he led was instrumental in getting supporters and media along on the journey.
The work he did in developing the squad was difficult to ignore though, and so that proved for Steve Tandy and the Welsh Rugby Union who offered him the unmissable opportunity to run an attack at test level.
While the official announcement made it seem as if Sherratt was poached in the week of the first game of the 2025/26 season, the truth was that the possibility had been known for a few weeks and work was happening in the background to plan for the eventuality of a change at the top. Still, the timing was certainly not ideal.
Step forward Corniel Van Zyl.
The South African was already a key figure at the Arms Park having noticeably helped improve the forward play and set piece at the club the previous season after arriving from Ealing Trailfinders in the summer of 2024.
Speaking on the Cardiff Central Podcast earlier in the campaign, Josh McNally was full of praise for the South African-born former Italian international, describing him as “a very, very detailed coach, very South African where a lot of South African coaches are very detailed on know your role, do your job and do it well.”
The talismanic lock also added that “he’s really good with the younger players as well, giving younger players the freedom and the confidence to be themselves and add value to the squad.”
Since stepping up to the top job Van Zyl has never sought to knock down the house that Jockey built over the previous two years. In fact, he barely even considered redecorating it with much of the attacking principles, ambition to score tries over kick goals and counter attack in transition present even if they haven’t fired on all cylinders without Sherratt.
What the 47-year-old has done though is add on an extension, and not just any extension, but a sprawling two-floor open-plan extension with attached conservatory that is absolutely packed with grit and determination. It’s taken the attractive and exciting rugby in place, and complemented it with a killer mindset that allows Cardiff to win in a number of ways.
There’s been a comfort in managing narrow leads against Edinburgh and Connacht, belief in overcoming deficits against Ulster and Scarlets, and a confidence in securing statement wins at the business end of the season over Ospreys and Stormers.
That victory over Stormers in particular, with multiple players missing through injury and unavailability, saw club captain Liam Belcher articulate just what it is that Van Zyl has instilled in the team, noting “that’s what the group’s about, next person up mentality and we spoke about having fight and enjoyment, I think we’ve seen that in a bucket load today”.
He can’t do it alone though, with McNally describing how the Head Coach has also done “an amazing job to empower the other coaches around him to step up.” A statement that could not be more obvious thanks to the work Gethin Jenkins has done in corralling the defence from a competent unit into one of the best in the league.
Only the top three of Glasgow, Leinster and Stormers have conceded fewer points than Cardiff in the URC this season, while Munster get added to that list when it comes to tries conceded. An 81% tackle success rate is bettered only by Glasgow and Dragons, while 120 turnovers won is once again towards the top of the table as just Munster and Scarlets win more.
That defence, along with the mindset of the squad, will be tested like never before on Saturday as the Blue & Blacks travel down to Cape Town for a rematch against Stormers. It’s a first play-off game for the club since the post-season games returned to a previous iteration of the competition, with many players experiencing a quarter-final for the first time.
Going into DHL Stadium for a knockout game will be a totally different animal to that Friday at the Arms Park, but one thing that won’t be doubted is that Corniel Van Zyl will have given this squad every chance to succeed through the technical detail and emotional development he has put in place after stepping up to Head Coach.
There’s no next week to worry about, all that matters is going to Cape Town to fight and enjoy. Ymlaen Caerdydd!
Cardiff Rugby Life 