Posted by Cardiff’s 2025/26 season came to an end on Saturday as the Blue & Blacks fell to defeat in our first United Rugby Championship quarter-final at the hands of the Stormers in Cape Town.
A 44-21 scoreline was perhaps a bit heavier than the game reflected, but ultimately there was no arguing that the South Africans were deserved winners on the day, underlining to Corniel Van Zyl’s side the level required to compete in these end-of-season knockout games.
As seen at the Arms Park on the final day of the regular season, the Stormers scrum was utterly dominant throughout. It provided go-forward ball and won crucial penalties, while it also resulted in starting tighthead prop Keiron Assiratti picking up a nasty looking calf injury that left him on crutches after the game.
However, the Blue & Blacks were not able to repeat what happened around that in the win two weeks ago. It started with the aerial game where the hosts, led by Springbok Damian Willemse, controlled the skies and with it came possession and field position, removing the ability to move them around the park.
When Cardiff did make it into the opposition 22 during the first half there was a clinical edge lacking, and as a result it was a constant chasing of the game for the visitors which ended up in two tries coming from attacking mistakes. Add in some soft defending for the try conceded just before half-time and it’s three avoidable scores on the afternoon.
That’s the learning curve for this group though. Getting to the play-offs is a great achievement, but the next step has to be getting competitive at this level and it’s a definite step up from in-season games going up against top quality players at the peak of their powers, going to some of the toughest places to play and performing with everything on the line.
There will be some disappointment about elements of the refereeing, which is a shame to mention after a high profile quarter-final game. Andre-Hugo Venter’s early equalising score was clearly short on the angles shown yet there was no TMO intervention, while Evan Roos got away with striking two Cardiff players in the same move later on.
In a similar vein there was the challenge of the laws stipulating that because Keiron Assiratti was injured and could not return to the field when Javan Sebastian was yellow carded, the Blue & Blacks then had to go down to 13 due to the uncontested scrums. This feels like an unfair double jeopardy, especially when the yellow is for a technical offence.
They have a greater impact on the game than simply adding or subtracting a number of points when it comes to momentum and in-game decisions, but ultimately they don’t change the fact that Stormers were the best team on the day.
In turn though that doesn’t change the fact that Cardiff have had a brilliant season. There’ll be plenty of time over the next few weeks to go deep on how 2025/26 played out for Corniel Van Zyl’s side, but Saturday was the epitome of the effort and attitude that has got this group from mid-table disappointment to play-off qualifiers.
There’s a disappointment that it ended, and in the way it did, but the overwhelming emotion is pride in the players, coaches and club as a whole for what they have given us this year. There have been a few lows, but so many highs, and importantly this doesn’t feel like the end of a journey but merely the ending of a chapter.
What comes next is a 150th season back in the Champions Cup and with the core of the squad staying together, an exciting future where the next step will be tough to take but certainly not impossible for the Blue & Blacks. There’s so much to look forward to at Cardiff Arms Park.
Cardiff Rugby Life 