NORTHAMPTON SAINTS 28 -12 CARDIFF RUGBY
Cardiff Rugby head coach Corniel van Zyl told his players to keep their “heads high” after they scrapped their way through a dogged duel with English champions Northampton Saints in their opening game in the Investec Champions Cup.
Despite being beaten for the second weekend in a row – they lost to the URC champions Leinster in Dublin in their last game – Van Zyl’s men emerged with credit from the same Franklin’s Gardens venue at which Bath had been mauled 71-48 with 11 tries.
“I think we can keep our heads high. It’s not an easy place to come to, to the home of the PREM Rugby champions, Now we can look forward to the next game against the Sharks,” said Van Zyl.
Next up for the Welsh capital club in Europe will be Bath at the Arms Park in December. Van Zyl says there are lessons to be learned from a defeat in the Midlands where the scoreline could have been much close had Tom Manz not lost the ball in the act of scoring and had George Hendy not caught Josh Adams a couple of metres short of the tryline.
Cardiff also had several promising entries into Saints territory before the break but failed to turn those opportunities into points. They improved after the interval, however, competing more effectively in the aerial contest and the breakdown exchanges to make the Saints work for their victory.
The one problem area was the set-piece, particularly the line out. That will be a big work-on for the squad this week
“There’s no hiding away from it. The line-outs obviously didn’t go as planned, so that’s definitely the first work-on, which will be well needed against the team next week,” he said.
“I thought we fought it out at the scrums. So, it’s mainly the line-out to work on, set-piece-wise.”
The return of Adams, who came off the bench in the 56th minute, and Taulupe Faletau, who started and played for 56 minutes in his first game since March, was a boost for Van Zyl. He will be hoping to get even more out of his senior Welsh internationals in the weeks ahead.
Saints led 14-0 at the interval following home tries from James Pater and Toby Thame, but a try from Harri Millard six minutes after the break and then Mason Grady on the hour mark cut the gap to two points. Jarrod Evans converted the Millard score.
But that was as good as it got for the visitors as Saints turned up the heat and added further tries from Hendy and Fraser Dingwall.