Posted by Cardiff will face two 2025/26 finalists in this year’s pre-season campaign as English Championship champions Worcester Warriors are visited at Sixways before English Prem runners-up Exeter Chiefs come to the Arms Park.
After the (respectfully) walk over against Richmond last season it’s a return to two testing games for the Blue & Blacks, with the added facet that Worcester have already played a pre-season game and start their season next week so will be close to fully firing while Exeter have a competitive Prem Cup game before their trip to the capital.
Ahead of a huge campaign for Cardiff where the 150th year will be celebrated and a return to the Investec Champions Cup awaits it’s a tone setting start where the squad will be physically and tactically tested. With the first of the games coming up this weekend, it’s time to take a look at some interesting storylines for Corniel Van Zyl.
Fitness Check
The Blue & Blacks have (touch wood!) fared pretty well in the injury stakes over the last few years, thanks undoubtedly to a bit of luck required to avoid knocks but also the work of the medical department and coaches in managing players and rotating well.
There are a few players who come into pre-season with some fitness question marks though, with supporters scanning team sheets for certain names to see just how ready or otherwise they may be for the new season.
Keiron Assiratti missed the summer Cymru games with a calf injury, Josh McNally has had summer elbow surgery, Taulupe Faletau suffered a significant shoulder injury in South Africa and Theo Cabango has passed the two-year mark on the sidelines after a serious hamstring tear which he then re-did during rehabilitation.
Assiratti, McNally and Faletau may not quite make any of the friendlies, while Theo Cabango has featured heavily in social media clips of training but will likely be managed very carefully on his return to playing. Aled Davies and Harri Millard missed the back end of last season with knocks but both are expected to be fit for pre-season.
Howe waits in the wings
The big storyline from a Cardiff Academy perspective over the last year has been the emergence of hooker Tom Howe, the Ysgol Glantaf schoolboy who helped his school get to the WRU College League Final, made a try scoring debut for Cardiff RFC, won Cymru D20 caps and trained with the Cardiff first team all while studying for his A Levels.
Now departed from school he turns his attention to full-time rugby with many suggesting he is well in-line for senior professional rugby exposure despite still only being 18. An imposing figure at 6’2″ and already physically well developed he seems ready for the step up, albeit his skill development will need to continue.
With Liam Belcher, Evan Lloyd and Dafydd Hughes in the senior squad there are three very good options ahead of him, but it’s only one injury away from Howe needing to be involved in a matchday squad so some pre-season action could well be required to see if he is up to speed.
Flip flopping fly-halves
When Jarrod Evans’ return to Cardiff was confirmed earlier in the summer the reaction was one of surprise as much as contentment that a talented player, academy graduate and Welsh international was coming home.
That surprise was largely due to the fact that the Blue & Blacks already had a clear first choice 10 in Callum Sheedy, a Welsh international back up in Ioan Lloyd and a Cymru D20 third choice in Harri Wilde coming through into the first team, and other positions requiring investment before more gly-half was looked at.
Here we are though, both Sheedy and Evans are part of the squad and now attention turns to how Corniel Van Zyl will use them. The word from inside the camp is that they will both be seen as joint-first choice fly-halves and juggle the workload between them, but whether that comes to fruition when form and fitness strikes during the season remains to be seen.
In pre-season we will be reduced to reading too much into team selections; will they do a half each of both games? Will they start one game each? Which scrum-half and centre duo are they being paired with? Headlines aplenty!
The future on show
As ever pre-season is a great opportunity for senior academy players to show what they can do after a good few weeks of uninterrupted training with the first team. Particularly in the first game when those involved in the summer internationals are not ready for action yet.
This year there is a healthy list of young talent who will be keen to see some game time; Cam Tyler-Grocott and the aforementioned Howe up front, Tom Cottle, Gabe Williams and Sonny McCabe in the second row, Evan Rees and Lucas De La Rua in the back row, Sion Davies at scrum-half, and Rhys Cummings and Matty Young in the back three.
While the likes of Tyler-Grocott, Williams, McCabe and Cummings are still on the younger side and just looking for a bit of exposure, Howe, Cottle, Rees, De La Rua, Davies and Young should have an eye on pushing for the matchday 23 this season and some strong pre-season performances will do nothing to hurt that cause.
13 again
Another year, and another discussion about the outside centre position at Cardiff! Even before Rey Lee-Lo called time on his career there was murmurings about the lack of depth and succession planning, and just over a year on from the Samoan’s retirement that seems to be coming home to roost.
That being said, there remains loads of options for Van Zyl in the 13 position; Harri Millard has taken over the Lee-Lo role of playing every minute until he breaks, Mason Grady came through as an outside centre, Le Roux Malan seems to have been signed as a 13, Jacob Beetham and Ben Thomas have both worn the jersey for Cardiff, while Elijah Evans and Osian Darwin-Lewis were left off the list of senior academy players looking for game time above to be included in this section.
Pre-season should give an insight into what the thinking is about the 13 jersey, which will hopefully include some exposure for at least one of the youngsters in the position and not shifted to the wing. If it’s just Millard playing 160 minutes though – with respect to Hurricane Harri – we riot!
Cardiff Rugby Life 