Posted by At the culmination of the 2025/26 season I wrote that it felt as if a chapter had closed on the first three years of the Cardiff Rugby rebuild plan, from the depths of the summer of 2023 back to the top of European rugby.
It was an eventful few seasons encompassing the overhauling of the squad and blooding of numerous young players in 2023/24, some smart recruitment aiding the further development of those players in 2024/25, and then the realising of that work on scoreboards as the Blue & Blacks finished sixth in the United Rugby Championship, qualified for the play-offs and set up an Investec Champions Cup campaign in the club’s 150th anniversary year.
Now attention begins to turn towards the next three years though with the 2026/27 campaign firmly on the horizon. The first question is exactly what can be achieved against the backdrop of Union ownership and the professional club game in Wales constantly in a chaotic limbo?
The frustrating truth is that, despite an exciting looking coaching ticket, a squad containing plenty of quality and a pathway churning out talented group after talented group, Cardiff Rugby may well be at the ceiling of what we can achieve. With the wage budget available it is simply not enough to break through into that next bracket of clubs.
Extra frustrating is that you get the sense “only” around £600k more in the wage pot – not small change admittedly but not a huge increase in sporting salary terms – could be enough to add the two or three players that the Blue & Blacks require to go to bat with the top sides on a more consistent basis.
That financial uplift is not on the horizon until the 2028/29 season at the earliest though, if at all as the Welsh Rugby Union remains incapable of implementing any change that could lead to a more competitive budget, so the name of the game for this next chapter of the rebuild is likely to be consolidation rather than a continuing upward curve.
For this upcoming campaign there will be a heavy focus on the sesquicentennial (copied and pasted) season and rightly so. With the return to the Champions Cup and the attempt to go back-to-back in the play-offs, Corniel Van Zyl would be forgiven for having more of a tunnel view of success in the next 12 months alone.
Some young players will get opportunities to play along the way, but getting the absolute most out of the likes of Scott Sio, Josh McNally, Dan Thomas, Taulupe Faletau, Aled Davies, Callum Sheedy and Josh Adams as the majority of the over-30 cohort will be key to achieving the positive outcomes of a few Champions Cup wins and remaining in the URC top eight.
At the end of the season though the consolidation could then change tack slightly to ensuring Cardiff are set up for whatever is to come in 2028 or beyond by moving on from a few of those who might be considering calling time on their playing days or fancying a new challenge for the final part of their careers.
The likes of Tom Cottle, Lucas De La Rua, Sion Davies, Harri Wilde, Osian Darwin-Lewis and Rhys Cummings, amongst others, may well be ready to step up to first team action by then, and there could be some opportunity to bring a few players back from England with Ioan Emanuel, Sam Scott, Christ Tshiunza and Max Llewellyn on the shopping list.
Hopefully by the summer of 2028 the WRU will have, whether purposely or accidentally, been able to sort out the future of the pro game in Wales and the Blue & Blacks will be in a position to increase the playing budget and add some of that top quality talent to the squad alongside the young players exposed the previous season to really push for the top of northern hemisphere club rugby again.
What’s happening at that level is largely beyond the control of the day-to-day operations at Cardiff though. Instead, ensuring the squad is ready for whatever happens is crucial to taking advantage of any opportunities that present themselves. Trying to have a bigger picture outlook despite the image being very fuzzy at best.
First though, 2026/27 will hopefully be a fun one as the Blue & Blacks celebrate 150 years and head back to the top table of European rugby with some huge games against Bath, Northampton, Stade Francais and Montpellier to come.
This second chapter of the rebuild has a significantly less clear outlook than the first, but if it is managed well the results could be even more important.
Cardiff Rugby Life 