After over 100 days since their last competitive outing, Dan Fish named a starting 15 with lots of exciting young players featuring in the trip to Sardis Road. It proved to be a difficult task as tries from Ethan Phillips, Osian Darwin-Lewis, Dewi Cross, Luke Pollock proved not to be enough as Ponty finished the game the stronger scoring five tries in the second-half. Returning Marc Thomas also made his 20th appearance for The Blue and Blacks, earning his club tie after playing his first game for Cardiff since September 2023.

After some back and forth rugby early in the game with both sides sharing the possession, the first real chance came from the hosts after 15-minutes as a driving maul was heading towards The Blue and Blacks line but was held up after some heroic defending. Ethan Phillips broke the deadlock after 24 minutes as after a break from debutant Osian Darwin-Lewis which put The Blue and Blacks on the front-foot, after a few further phases Captain Jason Harries popped the ball up to Phillips to cross over.

The hosts responded accordingly as after a brilliant chip over the top from scrum-half Lucas Welch inside The Blue and Blacks 22, Dale Stuckey recovered the ball and offloaded to blind-side Cai James to score. On the stroke of half-time The Valley Commandos scored their second as after The Blue and Blacks were penalised, Jacob Symes kicked to the corner and a powerful driving maul followed which led to Rob Jones crossing the whitewash.

HT: Pontypridd 12-7 Cardiff

Cardiff came out for the second-half having made no changes, and it didn’t take long for them to find their second of the afternoon as Luke Pollock ran a superb line which broke through the hosts defence and eventually offloaded to Sion Davies who finished the phase off with a pass to Osian Darwin-Lewis who scored on his debut for The Blue and Blacks. Dewi Cross was next to score and this came after a brilliant break from the man who scored 16 times last season. The hosts responded accordingly as straight from the restart after exerting a huge amount of pressure on The Blue and Blacks defence, Cally James powered his way over.

The try scoring mayhem didn’t stop there, as just two minutes later Luke Pollock from 40 metres out managed to cross over after a brilliant break. With possession going back and forth, it only seemed fitting for Ponty to get the next score as Mitch Barnard scored after another driving maul from the hosts.

With that phase of the game being over where there was a try scored every two minutes, it took the hosts ten minutes to score their fifth. Referee Adam Jones penalised The Blue and Blacks inside their 22 again, and this then led to another kick into the corner with replacement Michael Huntley crossing over from the driving maul.

Cai James scored his second of the afternoon, after powering his way through The Blue and Blacks defence. Aled Ward was also shown a yellow card in the aftermath of the try being scored, which meant the visitors were down to 14. With the momentum in their favour, the hosts concluded proceedings at The House of Pain with a try inside the final moments from Ty Lewis which meant The Valley Commandos made it four from four in their pre-season outings.

Next up for The Blue and Blacks is English Championship side Cambridge Rugby in the clubs first ever meeting at the Cardiff Arms Park next Saturday as Dan Fish’s men conclude pre-season (KO: 2:00pm).