In what has been one of the longest off seasons to date, the 2024/25 season for Cardiff sees one of the biggest structural shakeups in the game since the formation of regional rugby in 2003, as this new 10-team Super Rygbi Cymru league will replace the old 13-club Indigo Premiership as the top division of domestic Welsh rugby.
All 10-teams (Aberavon, Bridgend, Cardiff, Carmarthen Quins, Ebbw Vale, Llandovery, Newport, Pontypool, RGC and Swansea) will move completely out of the community game and become a more professional league aligned with regional rugby.
Cardiff will play 18 games home and away league fixtures in the regular season before three rounds of play-offs and a Grand Final. Every team in the new competition is guaranteed at least one Play-off and four further games in the cup competition that will take place in the Six Nations period. Cardiff were drawn in Group A alongside Llandovery, RGC, Aberavon and Bridgend and will kick-off the Cup away at Church Bank. This also means that The Blue and Blacks will play a minimum of 23 matches over the season.
There will be three pieces of silverware up for grabs, these are the Super Rygbi Cymru Trophy, Super Rygbi Cymru Cup and the Challenge Shield which Llandovery will defend at every home game as they won the cup last season. If the challenger beats The Drovers they will become the new holders and will have to defend it at their next home league game in the regular season.
On the new competition, head coach Dan Fish stated: “It’s exciting, it’s a new league so we don’t really know what to expect and it’s an exciting time for all the teams in this league.
“We know that there are going to be nine strong teams with ourselves, so we have to be on it every week and that’s the beauty of this league. We have a run of seven tough games so we will have to get our heads screwed on for all those games and you have to be on it because in this league if you turn up thinking a team is going to roll over then your going to come unstuck.
“I think it’s going to be good especially for these younger boys and obviously the more experienced boys can help them out, some of these boys have probably not backed up seven games in a row. I think that is going to be the exciting part.
“The brand of rugby, all coaches have been speaking about and hopefully we can deliver on that and we want it to be an exciting place for players to express themselves with their skills.
“You want people to tune in and watch this league and as a coaching group we owe it to ourselves and our team to just allow these boys to go out there and express themselves,” said Fish.
On last season, Fish insisted: “It was good last year, obviously we had our challenges they were there every week for us.
“In house we were happy that we got into that top four and then unfortunately for us we drew Llandovery who were the best team in the league last year, and it was a tough game in the playoff semi-final. Where we finished last season with some of the stuff we had going on, I think it was a successful season for us.”
One of its main aim for this new league is to bridge the gap between age-grade and regional rugby, providing academy players with higher standard of matches and more frequent playing opportunities.
“It’s massive, I think we’ve done that well over the past couple of years with Cardiff you speak to any of the young boys who have come through the senior academy into Cardiff Rugby and RFC, you know the Cam Winnett, Alex Mann, Mackenzie Martin,” said Fish on development.
“All them boys would have learnt a lot from the semi-pro boys that we have got at Cardiff RFC. We are very fortunate to have a good group of semi-pro players, some boys who have been there and done it themselves at pro level.
“Those experiences that they can offer them are some experiences that us coaching staff can’t offer them. It’s vitally important that you have that balance right because you can’t just put out a young team and think on paper that team looks good as there are a lot of crafty men in this league and they know how to work their way around the field and so it’s important to get that balance right otherwise the young boys won’t even touch the ball anyway, ”he added.
In preparation for the new Super Rygbi Cymru competition, The Blue and Blacks also confirmed eight new signings for the 2024/2025 season. These are Benji Williams, Marc Thomas, Aled Ward, Thomas Harper, Charlie Manship, Gavin Parry, Jared Williams and Josh Thomas.
“I think we’ve made some really good, positive signings this year you know all of them have come in with different experiences from different clubs, different countries,” Fish on the new signings.
“Like I said it’s important that we get that balance right and them boys we know that they have all got a voice somethings they may see us coaches may not, so its important that we work together to get the best out for the team
This Saturday The Blue and Blacks begin with the 374 mile round-trip to face RGC to kick-off the new season before being back in front of the S4C cameras when they face Ebbw Vale five days later.
On the season as whole, he added: “All nine other teams are going to be tough, you’re never going to shoot anyone down.
“Obviously you know the teams who are going to be there or there’s about, Llandovery who are a very good team, Newport another good team, and just think if you look around this league this year and all the signings these other teams have made every team is going to be stronger.
“So I just think that every week is going to be a tough game, as a rival I think all nine teams are going to be rivals to get what they want to get out of the season. It’s not just going to be your Llandovery’s and Newport’s.
“I honestly believe that if any team turns up on the day and the other team don’t I think anyone can beat anyone.
“That makes this league an enjoyable one and one that will have a few upsets from the people from the outside but I’m sure all of the coaches in this league know on any given day anyone can beat each other,” Fish concluded.