Posted by Cardiff RFC’s 2026/27 campaign gets underway this Saturday with a trip to Carmarthen as Dan Fish’s men look to top Super Rygbi Cymru for the third season successive season.
Unfortunately for the Blue & Blacks neither of those table topping runs have resulted in anything more than a paltry pennant that cost all of £3.50, as the subsequent end of season play-offs have seen the team defeated at the semi-final stage on both occasions.
While the Rags’ success is largely measured by the amount of Academy players that graduate through the semi-professional level on to the club’s 1st team, winning on the field remains a priority and supporters would enjoy nothing more than a big day out – and hopefully a win – at the SRC Final come next spring.
Looking at the squad for the coming year there’s a slight switch in pre-season preparation for 26/27. Whereas in the last few years the Academy group has remained pretty constant and the semi-pro core have experienced some changes, this year that has flipped on it’s head with the Academy squad welcoming in some new faces.
The semi-pro spine of the squad looks fairly settled as the likes of Alun Rees, Tom Harper, Sean Moore, Craig Hudd, Nathan Hudd, Aled Ward, Ben Fry, Tom Williams, Joe Goodchild and Dewi Cross return for another year, and at the centre of them all is scrum-half Ethan Lloyd.
24-year-old Lloyd is about to start his sixth season with the Rags having made his debut in November 2019 while at the Academy, going on to appear 47 times before his release from the professional game in the summer of 2023. A year at Merthyr followed before a return to the Arms Park where he’s subsequently played a further 41 times.
What underpins his game at scrum-half is a real command of the basics; a speed of play from the base, consistent quality of pass, quality of the box kicking and reading of the game that allows him to manage proceedings well and get involved away from the base of the ruck or set piece.
However, where Lloyd really excels in this Cardiff team is when it comes to getting his head up and injecting some pace into the attack and/or changing the picture the defence is seeing to create space for others.
That willingness to play with his head up and ability to quickly read what is happening around the fringes of the background puts Lloyd in a great spot to make an impact on the attack, in a team that thrives on that speed of ball and with a set of backs with the ability to capitalise on any broken play situation.
It’s the perfect style of attacking scrum-half under Dan Fish where he’s attack-minded firstly and able to implement the offensive style of game that the coach wants, but also has that balance where his game management and fundamentals are very good.
Undoubtedly this writer’s favourite aspect of Lloyd’s play though stems from that heads up attack at the base of the ruck where he’s able to spot space in the wide channels and produce beautiful miss-passes to reach the danger men on the wings in order to let them run.
Despite only being 24 – soon to turn 25 – Lloyd is already a senior member of the squad and well on track to join the 100 club during this upcoming campaign.
Having largely dominated the scrum-half position last season it seems likely that he will share responsibilities a touch more this year as Sion Davies looks for game time with an eye on progressing towards the first team, however an injury or two at the professional level will leave the Rags relying heavily on Lloyd once again.
If those injuries were to persist in the first team though, Corniel Van Zyl could do a lot worse than call on the services of the Rags 9 – as happened in January 2025 – in order to add cover to the first team squad with no doubt he would be more than capable of doing a job.
For now though he remains a key man for Dan Fish, and someone who’s fitness and form will go a long to determining whether Cardiff can kick on from being Super Rygbi Cymru regular season champions and challenging for play-off silverware.
Cardiff Rugby Life 