Posted by For the first time in a few years Cardiff Rugby officially announced a senior academy squad over the summer, naming 24 players who will make up the next generation of Blue & Blacks.
That’s not a criticism as such, more the reality that comes from numerous years of off-field chaos both at the Arms Park and in Welsh rugby as a whole where budgets for the senior team are decided just prior to a season starting and academies are left to piece things together as they go along.
In fact, it’s actually serious praise for the club to have remained in a position to name a 24-man senior academy squad of such balance and quality despite all the background action of the last few seasons, and in particular the work done to focus on the tight five.
Prior to the 2023/24 campaign you have to go back to the 2016/17 senior academy squad to find a whole generation of players that came through the system as a group and broke into the first team together; Rhys Carre, Corey Domachowski, Liam Belcher, Keiron Assiratti, Seb Davies, Shane Lewis-Hughes, James Botham, Harri Millard and Owen Lane.
They had the likes of Dillon Lewis, Tomos Williams and Jarrod Evans just ahead of them, while Dane Blacker would go on to have a successful professional career between Dragons and Scarlets, and Rhun Williams was on course to become a senior Cymru international but for the serious nerve injury that prematurely ended his career.
Other players have made the grade in the mean time, but more in isolation rather than as a big group up until that summer of 2023. However, what they have in common post 2016/17 is that the vast majority of academy graduates have been backs.
Ellis Bevan, Harri Wilde, Ben Thomas, Steff Emanuel, Max Llewellyn, Jacob Beetham, Theo Cabango, Tom Bowen, Mason Grady and Cam Winnett are all very talented players, but none of them address the problem positions in the tight five that Cardiff have been trying to deal with for many years.
It should be highlighted here that the Blue & Blacks have tried to produce players in this area, only for the likes of Ioan Emanuel, Sam Scott, Christ Tshiunza and Luke Evans to be tempted over the Bridge by offers from English clubs.
As a result Rhys Barratt, Evan Lloyd and Teddy Williams are really the only tight forwards who have made the grade at the Arms Park in that same time frame, but looking down the senior academy squad list this season it is clearly something that Academy Manager Gruff Rees has moved to address and hopefully we will see the benefits of that in the coming years.
Brayan Kamanga and Vinnay Cleak are both loosehead prop prospects who impressed in the WRU College League, Tom Howe is a well-known talent at hooker having featured for Cymru D20 last season while still doing his A-Levels, Cam Tyler-Grocott has impressed for Cardiff RFC over the last two years and may switch from loosehead to tighthead this season, while out-and-out tighthead Isaac Jones won Seren-Y-Gem in the College League Final and still has another year at Glantaf.
Tom Cottle has been a mainstay in the Cymru D20 pack at lock the last two years, and will be joined in the Rags engine room this season by Gabe Williams who featured regularly for Cardiff Met during the previous campaign, and Sonny McCabe who made a few Cardiff RFC appearances down the stretch despite also still being in school.
Behind them Harri Lewis is also part of the senior academy squad despite only just starting college having been a regular for the U18 side last season while technically still available to play Dewar Shield and Regional Age Grade U16.
Of course none of this is to say that any of the above will definitely make the grade, but it’s undoubtedly encouraging to see a healthy looking pathway for tight five forwards once again and a real balance to the Academy, as well as the boost it will give the Rags in positions Dan Fish’s side have been light in too.
If even 30% of them progress to the first team though it will match the last few years, and if that can be repeated regularly it puts Cardiff in a great spot to kick on once (if!) Welsh rugby manages to remove it’s head from it’s backside and there’s a chance at making progress to being regularly competitive.
Cardiff Rugby Life 