The Blue and Blacks hang on to win despite late onslaught from Cambridge
An impressive second-half try from Player of the Match, Kodie Stone accompanied by Harri Wilde adding the extras sealed a 14-12 win for Cardiff RFC in their last pre-season match against Cambridge Rugby.
An early first-half try from Alun Rees followed by a second-half try by Stone saw The Blue and Blacks record their first win under new head coach Dan Fish at the Cardiff Arms Park
Speaking after the result captain Jason Harries said: “We reviewed a lot from last week’s game against Pontypridd on things we can get better at, things that don’t require any talent, speed into position, both sides of ball in attack and defence, escorting when the ball is in the air.
“Little things like that and I’ve seen a big improvement from last week, it was end-to-end at some stages of the game, but I was glad we came out on the right side of the scoreboard.”
Compared to last week’s opening try it only took The Blue and Blacks five minutes to open up the scoring as hooker Alun Rees stretched over the line after a rolling maul. Wilde kicked the conversion to put the hosts 7-0 up.
After turning the ball over Benji Williams put The Blue and Blacks back on the front foot by popping the ball outside to Joe Goodchild who brought the hosts up to the halfway line, Cambridge were then penalised for coming in at the side, however after retrieving the ball at the line-out just outside the ‘Blood and Sand’ 22 The Blue and Blacks knocked the ball on.
Around the half an hour mark the visitors had a really good chance to score after flyhalf Arthur Lennon just about kicked into the corner, a catch and drive followed but the ball was eventually held-up by some heroic defending from the hosts.
Moments later, Arthur Lennon was involved in the making of the visitors opening try as after a brilliant run to break through The Blue and Blacks defence the ball was offloaded wide for open-side Jared Cardew to cross in the corner. Winger Eli Caven’s shot went wide which meant at the break The Blue and Blacks went in with a narrow 7-5 lead.
At half-time The Blue and Blacks made only one change as full-back Joe Goodchild was replaced by Joseff Jones.
Within the opening moments of the second-half Kodie Stone broke through the visitors defence and crossed over after an impressive run from distance to score an excellent solo try. Wilde added the extras to extend the hosts lead to nine (14-5).
After numerous infringements inside The Blue and Blacks 22, referee Keith David awarded Craig Hudd a yellow card after collapsing a driving maul. After kicking to the corner, another rolling maul followed however on that occasion The Blue and Blacks turned the ball over and relieved pressure.
With the one man advantage, Eli Caven crossed over in the corner after the ball was spread through the visitors backline. Caven converted his own score to reduce the hosts lead to just two going into the final quarter.
With the clock deep into the red, the visitors looked to be closing in on a late score. However, after a penalty, the visitors found themselves in the corner but the ball was turned over and resulted in the match coming to a close.
The Blue and Blacks will now turn their full attention to the opening game of the Super Rygbi Cymru season as they make the long trip to North Wales to face RGC on September 14th.
FT: Cardiff 14-12 Cambridge