Cardiff gained a bonus point win against a spirited Bargoed side that never gave up at the Arms Park.
It started brightly for the home side. The early stages belonged to the Blue & Blacks and they were on the scoreboard within the first few minutes. A lineout deep in the visitor’s half allowed the home side to run a set play. When that broke down the ball was recycled and space created for Will Rees-Hole to dive over, Steffan Jones converted. And the centre was to grab a second try a few minutes later, this time the forwards gave the home side field position and when Matthew Powell and Joe Gatt got the Blue & Blacks behind the defence it only took a few slick pairs of hands to set Rees-Hole free. Jones converted and added a penalty shortly after to extend the lead.
When the third try was secured it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for Bargoed. Morgan Allen was the scorer of what was a break that he began and ended. The powerful No8 broke through in midfield and passed to Tom Daley who stormed into the twenty-two before being brought down. His pass found Allen to cross the line and touch down near the posts posts with two defenders trailing behind him, Jones converted.
Bargoed got themselves on the board a few minutes later. Barney Nightingale created space for wing Matthew Billett leave the half time score 24-7 following the conversion by Josh Prosser.
Cardiff started the second half as they meant to go on. The dominant scrum yielding a penalty that was pushed into the corner, and when the maul was dragged down the referee had no option but to award a penalty try. Back came the visitors. Nightingale again involved, this time he and Matt Bancroft setting up Grant Rodgers to score. The second half though was turning into a scrappy affair and the Blue & Blacks were putting in a lot of effort for little reward.
It took until ten minutes from the end for them to make the game safe. This time the rolling maul wasn’t stopped and captain Joey Tomlinson was at the back to touch down. Bargoed grabbed a third try to give them hope once again through Jordan Howells, but when another Cardiff rolling maul near the visitor’s line was stopped Martin Roberts was on hand to snipe round the corner. Gareth Thompson added the conversion from wide out to secure the 43-21 win.