Home Loss Signals New Low
Arms Park Friday
By Andrew Collins
September 10 2005
Following an aweful opening weekend, Cardiff continued to slump as they fell short in their attempts aginst Irish province Ulster. The memories of Connact last week were not supressed with a win on Friday, instead made yet more painful with this defeat.
Team:
N Macleod; C Czekaj, R Williams (capt), T Davies, C Morgan; N Robinson, M Phillips; J Yapp, Rhys Thomas, M Jones, C Quinnell, R Sidoli, M Molitika, R Sowden-Taylor, A Powell.
Subs Used: B Evans for M Jones, D Jones for C Quinnell, M Lewis for A Powell, R Powell for Mike Phillips.
The game was won by the lesser of underperformers with the basis of the game and scorleine revolving around the teams fly-halfs.
The Blues took the lead through Nicky Robinson on 4 occasions in the first half, with opposite number David Humphreys cancelling out the first 3 of the home sides penalties with his own. With the scoreline and balence constantly changing, the match timeline went 3-0, 3-3, 6-3, 6-6, 9-6, 9-9 until Robinsons effort before half time gave Cardiff a 12-9 lead, although he missed a chance to take give the Blues a six point lead with the last kick.
It was a poor half, with neither side building any sort of attacking platform, with the old handling errors spoiling the match, a huge 25 were shared between the two sides.
The second half started well with both sides looking more lively and playing more running rugby, and it was the Blues who benefitted most from the re-start, Humphreys missed a chance to draw level and then Robinson added another to give some breathing space between the sides.
However the Arms Park region looked like a nervous side, and didn't look capable of holding on to their margin. And sure enough, 2 stuipid penalty's were given away and Humphreys converted to perfection.
The Blues were beginning to crumble and couldn't seem to set up any attack despite a great solo run from Mike Phillips, which almost resulted in a try for the former scarlet.
A simple yet well exacuted box kick from Keiran Campbell went straight over on-coming wing Craig Morgan, and landed in the lap of Ulster's Tommy Bowe, he gathered well avoiding the touchline, and beat helpless Nick Macleod who stood no chance against the winger, with Bowe scoring between the sticks for Humphreys to add a simple conversion.
Ulster tought Cardiff a tough lesson in how to hold on to a win with the Northern Irelanders adding a great drop goal to crank up the pressure on Dai's boys.
In the 78th minute however, Rhys Williams picked up a lose ball and raced in and out of the defence before feeding Craig Morgan for the first try of the season. Robinson converted exellently to take the defacit to 3 with 5 minutes with injury time to go.
It was the most exiting 5 minutes of the match, but after pushing Cardiff back into their 22, Ulster won possession and slowed the game down to take 4 points.
Cardiff picked up a bonus point for the second time in a week against Irish opposition, with more and more pressure being piled on Dai Young to get results.
With the Scarlets visiting on Wednesday, a result really is a must.
One thing Dai MUST do in my opinion is change this failing mid-feild. Tristan Davies is useless, he brings absolutely nothing to this side and slows down any attack. Whil we are down 3 center, there must still be changes. One option as i mentioned on Thursday is to bring in Lee Thomas at 12, who adds an extra kicking game and has an extra yard of pace. Another option is to move Mike Phillips to 12 with Powell wearing 9.
Whatever team plays, a result on Wednesday really is vital.
Oh and a note for O sprey on the messageboard, total attendence, 5,784.