Posted by For Cardiff RFC’s 2025/26 season, see the 2024/25 season.
That would be a simple way to write this season review in many respects. The Blue & Blacks once again won Super Rygbi Cymru by virtue of topping the table at the end of the campaign, but also failed to win Super Rygbi Cymru by virtue of getting knocked out in the semi-final for the second year in a row.
There was a slight difference in the manner of the SRC table topping this season though, as Cardiff overturned what was at one stage a 20-point deficit to pip Ebbw Vale on the final day. A remarkable run of nine straight league wins from mid-December through to mid-April, including taking 23 from a possible 24 points in the final four games of the season, secured the 1st position.
As ever with the Rags it is worth repeating that winning games, lifting trophies and being competitive is only half of the remit. Helping to bring through exciting young Academy talent is equally as important and in that respect it has once again been a roaring success for Dan Fish’s side.
The likes of Evan Rees, Lucas De La Rua, Harri Wilde, Elijah Evans and Matty Young all made forays into first team action on the back of their performances in the SRC, alongside the previous successes of Steff Emanuel and Tom Bowen, as the pathway continues to display a clear route into senior professional rugby.
Behind them we have seen the likes of Tom Howe, Sonny McCabe, Lloyd Lucas, Osian Darwin-Lewis and Rhys Cummings all getting good minutes at this first level of senior action out of age grade rugby, and not looking out of place either.
Despite all that though Cardiff once again fell at the penultimate hurdle in the quest for lifting a proper trophy at the end of the season, and not just the utterly pathetic and borderline insulting 50 pence pennant that the Welsh Rugby Union produced for topping the regular season table, as Llandovery won at the Arms Park in the semi-final.
It raises a question about the club-wide performance in knockout games in recent years. The U18s have twice lost the final of the Regional Age Grade Championship, despite this year being utterly dominant in the league phase, the Rags are on back-to-back semi-final defeats and the first team have lost four straight knockout encounters across the United Rugby Championship and European Challenge Cup.
Specifically on the Rags front there is mitigation in that the amount of young players going up a more experienced and settled side like Llandovery or Newport does make it tougher to get the win in those situations, but at some point it would be encouraging to see the club switch mindset from brave end-of-season losers to confident big game winners.
Looking ahead though and Dan Fish’s side have a vital role to play in that as the next generation of Academy talent looks to break through. Both the first team and Rags struggled in their knockout games this season due to being beaten up front, by a huge South African pack in Cape Town and an organised Llandovery pack at a wet Arms Park.
After some targeted work done by Gruff Rees and his Academy staff the tight five prospects in next season’s Academy squad are some of the best and deepest that the club has seen for at least a decade, maybe longer.
Looseheads Vinnay Cleak and Brayan Kamanga, tighthead Isaac Jones and lock Gabe Williams will join Howe, McCabe and Tom Cottle as players who could be called upon by Fishy, while Cam Tyler-Grocott seems set to make the switch across to tighthead as well.
If even a percentage of them make the grade then the club will be in a much better position to compete across the park against the top sides on the big occasions, whether it’s at the SRC level or up into the URC and European competition. Recruiting top tight five players is prohibitively expensive, producing them ourselves is a much better tactic.
Success still comes in the form of the players produced so far and the season-long results for Cardiff RFC, but the future could see that go to an even higher level. There’s still plenty of reasons for excitement in the capital.
Cardiff Rugby Life 