Posted by A third loss of the season by seven points or fewer, a second loss in a week, and yet another game where it felt as if Cardiff should have won but cost ourselves, yet one of the most enjoyable performances at the Arms Park for a while? Supporting the Blue and Blacks is confusing at best.
After particularly the showings against Benetton and Scarlets, and with Matt Sherratt’s men still early in this new era of squad development, there was more than a sense of foreboding heading into the capital on Friday night. The Bulls had swept aside Zebre and Scarlets, and pushed Ulster all the way at Ravenhill beforehand, naming a side with plenty of quality and experience even without their Springboks.
When a very sharp counter attack took advantage of a slightly below standard kick and chase from the hosts and then an intercept after a mis-timed midfield attack saw the South Africans fly into a 0-12 lead there was a feeling that Jake White’s side would pull away and a cricket score was on the cards.
However, if there’s one thing that has underpinned Cardiff’s opening month of the United Rugby Championship it’s been the effort levels of the players has been right up there for each of the 320 minutes. There have been no slow starts, no limps to the finish, just battling for each yard and that was in evidence again as the Blue and Blacks fought their way back.
Undoubtedly the most positive and most frustrating aspect of the Blue and Blacks performance, in equal measure, was the attack. After the blunter than blunt showing in Llanelli last week there was a huge uplift in ambition and creativity on Friday. The ball was moved quickly into midfield, the blind side was regularly challenged and we made it into the 15-metre channels on numerous occasions.
However, the side effect of that increased desire to get the ball shifted was that handling errors were aplenty. A final number of 15 underlined just how many times we coughed up possession, often letting the Bulls off the hook when pressure was mounting and giving them opportunities to use their scrum which was largely dominant in the final part of the game.
Of course it’s unrealistic to expect the attack to go from stuttering one-up runners to expansive and flowing in the space of a week, but it leaves a question of “what if we’d cut that error count down by even half?”. The possibility for development is exciting though.
As the attack continues to grow, the timing will improve, the handling get better and Cardiff will look more and more dangerous. Within that, Tinus De Beer continues to settle into his new club and a new competition, Jacob Beetham shook off a lot of ring rust on his URC debut after over 12 months without a competitive start, and Willis Halaholo still has even more levels to go through as he gets sharper.
There was also some valuable learning for Efan Daniel and Evan Lloyd as they made their first start and first team debut, respectively, throwing into the lineout in pressure situations, plus the likes of Teddy Williams and Alex Mann being exposed to tight games early in their careers.
Overall the defence was solid again, even if the refereeing wasn’t overly friendly towards our work at the breakdown, the maul defence was strong against a big Bulls pack, and our kick to compete game caused plenty of problems, including at the kick-off where we targeted a gap in the set up of the South Africans.
It’s a world of mixed emotions at the Arms Park with a small devil on one shoulder advocating getting angry and annoyed about Cardiff’s lack of ability to turn good performances into wins, but an angel on the opposite shoulder noting that Rome wasn’t built in a day and that small improvements each week are good progress.
The angel is currently winning, with the help of Jockey saying after the game that “I’d much rather take that tonight where we’re being positive. I can coach that so we can improve. “
#TrustTheProcess
Cardiff Rugby Life 