OSPREYS 0 – 26 CARDIFF RUGBY
Cardiff Rugby young guns were very much to the fore as they won for the first time in Swansea against the Ospreys since 2019.
Wing Tom Bowen scored two of the four tries, 18-year-old hooker Tom Howe grabbed his first BKT United Rugby Championship try and centre Steff Emanuel ended up with two assists as he put Bowen in for one of his tries and paved the way for Josh Adams to score his try.
After the debut win at their new St Helen’s home against the Dragons the previous week this was a dose of harsh reality for Mark Jones and his players as they dropped out of the top eight and saw Cardiff jump up into the play-off places.
The Ospreys dominated territory (61%) and possession (62%) and forced Cardiff to make 100 more tackles that they did. They also made nine clean breaks and beat 25 defenders – yet they couldn’t find a way to score.
It looked as though they had scored in the first half when Stef Thomas ploughed over from a driving line out, but the TMO came in to rule out the try on inspection as he had been held up. That epitomised the Cardiff defensive effort from start to finish.
“We always speak about the derbies being very close games that could be decided in a moment, so I definitely didn’t expect that winning margin,” admitted Cardiff head coach Corniel van Zyl.
“That was an amazing effort by the boys and all credit to them, to the staff, to the coaches for the way we prepared this game for. The boys stuck in there and they really fought for the jersey and the club.
“The next block is going to be nine games, so we will have to get everything ready for that. The break is coming at a decent time and will allow us to work on stuff we haven’t been so great at in the first block.”
It was 19-0 at the break after Bowen had struck twice and Adams had run onto Emanuel’s neat kick through. Jarrod Evans added two conversions.
The only score in the second half came from Howe’s debut score, with Callum Sheedy this time adding the extras.