Cardiff Rugby once again picked up the Welsh Shield after running in six tries in a 39-19 victory over the Ospreys in the opening game at Judgement Day.
The first of the two regional battles at Principality Stadium saw both teams chasing maximum points to keep alive their hopes of reaching the top eight play-off places and Cardiff arrived with head coach Matt Sherratt demanding 10 points from this game and next week’s home clash with Munster.
With a bonus-point in the bag by half time courtesy of two tries each from Alex Mann and Gabe Hamer-Webb, Sherratt had much to admire from his side’s first half performance – especially as they had been hit by the first of their three yellow cards in only the sixth minute when Teddy Williams went to the bin.
Keiran Williams got the Ospreys off the mark with a try at the posts before Williams returned, skipper Jac Morgan making the hard yards before his centre was sent over from two metres out, and Dan Edwards added the extras.
But that score merely acted like a red rag to a bull to the pumped-up Cardiff side. Mann’s first try came from close range after good forward approach play and then Hamer-Webb was sent racing to the line by a superb long pass from Cam Winnett.
Ben Donnell broke the line to pave the way for Hamer-Webb’s next score and when Ben Thomas cross kicked to the unmarked Mann on the right wing for the fourth try, Cardiff held a 22-7 lead.
The Ospreys lost No 8 Morgan Morse to a yellow card before the break and would have found themselves even further adrift had a Taulupe Faletau try not been ruled out for a crock roll by Alex Mann at a ruck in the build-up.
There were more yellow cards after the break, Cardiff losing Mann for a senseless late challenge and Harri Millard for a deliberate knock-on, while the Ospreys lost Keiran Williams at the death. There were also 31 penalties.
With their season on the line the Ospreys fought long and hard to try to find a way to breakdown the mean Cardiff defence and replacement lock Will Spencer in the 59th minute and replacement scrum half Keiran Hardy in the 76th finally found a way through.
Edwards converted the latter to make it a three-point game at 22-19, but that was as good as it got for the Ospreys. Cardiff turned a penalty against Keiran Williams for not releasing in a tackle on his 22 from the re-start into a penalty try from the ensuing line-out and then conjured up another opportunity from the kick-off for Hamer-Webb to bag his first professional hat-trick – and the first hat-trick at Judgement Day.
Ben Thomas converted the sixth and final try to turn the three-point gap into a 17-point triumph in the blink of an eye. Now it’s just the small matter of brining on Munster at the Arms Park on Friday night!