Posted by We’re back again in the grand hall of the Cardiff Rugby Life event centre as the first team file in ready for their end of season awards.
It was a fantastic campaign for Corniel Van Zyl’s men with a first qualification for the United Rugby Championship play-offs since they were re-introduced to the current version of the Welsh-Scottish League and securing Investec Champions Cup rugby for the club’s 150th year.
In amongst all that there’s been plenty to celebrate on an individual and team level, so let’s get into unofficially the official best Cardiff Rugby-linked awards.
Unsung Hero
An award to recognise a player who has been crucial to the squad’s efforts this season but perhaps won’t come into the reckoning for Player of the Year.
Dafydd Hughes has been an increasingly prominent member of the team, particularly with some high leverage showings off the bench when hitting lineouts has been key and his efforts around the field have helped secure wins, while Aled Davies’ experience and game management have been huge assets in some very tight encounters.
The winner though is Rory Thornton who has stepped up at lock in the injury absence of Teddy Williams to make 19 appearances in all competitions this season and play some of his best rugby since being at Cardiff. Joining the 100 Club along the way, he’s been the main man at the lineout and really taken on the workhorse role around the field.
Young Player of the Year
Quite difficult to really inject any jeopardy into this award because Tom Bowen is arguably the most obvious winner of any award I’ve done in the 10 or so years of these awards being a thing.
The recently turned 20-year-old has fully burst on to the scene this season with eight tries in 15 games across all competitions for Cardiff, plus two tries in five games for Cymru D20 in the U20 Six Nations, as he cemented his place at the top of the list of exciting talents to watch out for in world rugby.
With the electric winger also being recognised as the Next-Gen Player of the Season across the URC as a whole, as well as Breakthrough Player and Fans’ Player at the club’s awards night, it’s been a bumper haul of trophies and he’ll look to add some more to the cabinet at this summer’s World Rugby U20 Championship.
No Minute Loan Signing of the Year
A new award this season to recognise the sheer amount of loan signings that Cardiff have made who then subsequently never saw a single minute of action in Blue & Black.
Ethan Lewis had a stint back at the club from Ospreys after the turn of the year, Will Rigg and Osian Roberts both bolstered the midfield for no reason just before Christmas, and Barny Langton-Cryer trained at the Arms Park for a week before his services were no longer required.
A nod too to Bath hooker Max Pearce who missed out on consideration for this award courtesy of two minutes off the bench against Zebre.
Taking home the award though is Ospreys scrum-half Harri Williams who spent a full six weeks at the club without ever even being announced! He came in after Aled Davies was injured in South Africa, Sion Davies picked up a knock with Cymru D20 and Ieuan Davies disappeared off the face of the earth, covering Johan Mulder and Ellis Bevan.
Williams was a matchday reserve five times, travelled to Cape Town for the quarter-final against the Stormers and even attended the club’s awards night in the Bay, but officially was never here. The ultimate No Minute Loan Club member.
Best Performance
In a season of 13 wins and a qualification for the URC play-offs, the shortlist for this award is a fairly long. There was the well-managed home wins over Edinburgh and Connacht in the first block of games, and then the rain-soaked victory against Leinster on the Six Nations fallow weekend.
Serious consideration was given to the home win over Ospreys late on in the season, while the loss at Stade Francais received a courtesy mention for the performances of so many young players, many of whom were making their professional debuts, but how could it not be the final day of the campaign victory over Stormers at the Arms Park?
A magnificent performance from the whole team with so much on the line, a number of key injuries and an opposition pushing to finish top of the league coming to town. The scrum was totally dismantled but the aerial dominance, physicality, defensive organisation and cutting edge in attack more than made up for that on a perfect evening at a raucous CAP.
Best New Signing
Now this award could easily suffer from some recency bias as end-of-season performances skew the voting. Ioan Lloyd, for example, had a stop-start year until putting in a fine showing in that win over Stormers, and Taine Basham was in-and-out of the squad until Six Nations time when he started to nail down the number eight jersey and produce a series of impressive outings.
For season-long solidity it’s difficult to look beyond George Nott, but just pipping him to the trophy is Javan Sebastian who has been a bit of a surprise package after returning to Welsh rugby from a stint with Edinburgh and Scotland.
The 31-year-old effectively came in as a replacement for Rhys Litterick going the other way, with the jury out over how much of an impact he’d have, but Sebastian has been solid at scrum time and a great asset around the field, with his match winning performance away at Scarlets the highlight in a season of solid showings.
Try of the Season
Despite the successes of the season it wasn’t a vintage year for the attack which largely struggled after the sudden departure of Matt Sherratt immediately prior to the URC kicking off at the end of September.
That upheaval, and the relative inexperience of Jonny Goodridge and Dan Fish, led to a fairly lean season tries-wise but there were still a few standouts with Josh Adams finishing a sharp breakaway after exchanging tries with Johan Mulder against Edinburgh, Tom Bowen finishing off a flowing team effort against Stormers and going in at the corner after some lovely Callum Sheedy hands away at Munster.
My winner though is the try finished by Aled Davies against Leinster in February. The kind of counter attacking score Cardiff should be producing on a regular basis with the talent in the squad, but contextually it was a brave move to attempt in a tight encounter against the Irish giants and particularly in that awful weather at the Arms Park.
Special Recognition Award
This year’s Special Recognition Award is given to Leigh Halfpenny in appreciation for his performances for Cardiff, his standout showings for Cymru and the British & Irish Lions, his long service to the game of rugby, and also for saving our goal kicking percentage this season!
As the full-back retires the plaudits have come thick and fast for a man who burst onto the scene as a winger with the Blue & Blacks before switching over to become one of the best 15s of the professional era with his aerial work, defensive solidity, eye for the try line and metronomic goal kicking ability taking him to the very top of the game.
This season he may not have seen the game time that he might have liked, but his impact as a coach has been clear in the improvement enjoyed by Callum Sheedy off the tee, and there’s no doubt that Halfpenny will have bestowed plenty of knowledge on the likes of Matty Young, Tom Bowen, Steff Emanuel and Harri Wilde as young professionals.
A magnificent career.
Player of the Year
The big one comes around and pleasingly there are genuine contenders from right across the positions within the squad. Rhys Barratt has built on his breakthrough last season to be on the shortlist, while Alun Lawrence’s effort and resilience continues to put up some ridiculous numbers from the back row.
Johan Mulder was once again very good at scrum-half with his mix of attacking threat, defensive workrate and game management, while Ben Thomas continues to just ooze class season-in, season-out even when asked to switch to outside centre.
It is impossible to ignore the season-long efforts of Dan Thomas though who has consistently been at the centre of this team’s big performances, personifying the grit and determination it has required to reach the play-offs as he featured in all but one games across the league and Europe.
Particularly in defence, his tackle stats and key turnovers have been massive in single-handedly keeping Cardiff in games at times, while his engine gets him around the field to regularly make an impact on the aerial game, and his reading of the game has helped him get on the scoresheet three times as well.
The Arms Park loves a battling openside flanker, and in Thomas that is exactly what we have found, with the added bonus of some flowing locks! While Cymru caps may escape him, he can instead enjoy the even more prestigious honour of being the Cardiff Rugby Life 2025/26 Player of the Season.
Cardiff Rugby Life 