As the dust settled on Cardiff’s latest unsuccessful trip to the Emerald Isle, Blues supporters found themselves filled with mixed emotions. This was a stark contrast to how one normally feels after watching a Blues defeat. The standard response involves depression, anger and an overwhelming desire to turn to drink. However, this defeat suffered at the hands of an admittedly below-par and inexperienced Leinster side gave reason for optimism.
That in itself is perhaps a sign of how bad things have got for Cardiff over the last few years. It’s important that, before I offer up the reasons for such positivity, we acknowledge that this was a performance littered with basic errors throughout. You simply cannot expect to take anything away from a game in Dublin if you are going to drop restarts, put kicks out on the full and struggle to put more than two phases together without getting turned over or fail to execute simple passes. In many ways these are not new issues for Cardiff. Too often in recent times the team have offered up performances similar to this. However, there was something different about this failure.
Put simply, they tried. Despite the fact that Cardiff failed to hang onto the ball and gifted Leinster the opportunity to enter their half time and again, the Blues stood up, stuck together and on many occasions successfully repelled the men in Blue. They took everything Leinster could throw at them and refused to back down. Had Cardiff been in the same situation last season (no possession after opening 20 minutes, basic errors when they do have the ball and camped in their own twenty-two) I have no doubt that the final score would have left them with a humiliating defeat. They certainly would have conceded more tries from open play.
As someone who has despaired over the apparent lack of spirit and mental strength in the squad recently, it was fantastic to see players getting back to their feet after making hits and taking their place in the line; I lost count of the number of times Hobbs and Mitchell (both front-row forwards) swallowed up attackers before slowing the ball down for the opposition, giving their teammates the chance to reorganise the defensive line. This impressive work ethic from two props is to be commended.
The opening games of the season have also seen much better displays from Kiwi lock, Jarrad Hoeata. He seems to be thriving in the new environment created by Danny Wilson and Cardiff must be hoping this form continues as players with his experience and quality are hard to find for Welsh teams operating on meagre budgets compared to their friends over the Severn bridge and across the channel.
Credit must be given to Wilson and Graham Steadman, the defence coach drafted in by Wilson during the summer. The new defensive system that has been implemented appears to be having a positive effect and the players also seem to be relishing the physical side of the game. In addition to this, Wilson’s influence can also be seen at scrum time. For a long time teams have targeted Cardiff at the set-piece and found it to be an incredibly worthwhile enterprise; penalties, yellow cards and points on the scoreboard have followed and inevitably heads would go down as they tumbled to another defeat.
The end result yesterday was similar in many ways; Cardiff did concede a penalty try from a scrum, their captain was yellow carded late on and Leinster took the spoils. But there were a one or two major differences. First of all, heads stayed up and it’s that sort of mental toughness that will stand the squad in good stead for what’s to come. Additionally, for large parts of the match the scrum held it’s own, indeed it even brought penalties that resulted in successful kicks at goal from the impressive boot of Rhys Patchell (a marked contrast to the previous week).
Cardiff lost the game, hardly a surprise given the number of errors made, but they also showed enough to suggest that they might just have a group of players this year that supporters can be proud to shout for.
The powers that be have declared that Wilson has been guaranteed at least three years to bring success to the Arms Park. I doubt that success will arrive anytime soon, we all know professional sport isn’t just about having team spirit, but the players seem happy and are playing with pride. Ultimately, that’s a pretty good place to start.
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