9 Sep 2023
Cardiff 35 RGC 17
Saturday 9th September 2023
RGC showed some positive signs to open the season with a team average of 22 years old, but ultimately couldn’t claim a win in Cardiff who pulled away points-wise in the final 20 minutes.
With the start of the season comes a fresh new kit, and so many fresh faces in the RGC side they needed to start brightly against the capital side
Cardiff fly-half Harrison James kicked 3 first-half penalties and a try from Freddie Barnes in the opening half.
RGC’s lineout misfired on a few occasions and a couple of handling errors meant that they didn’t get much of a foothold in the first half. When they did get the ball handing errors cost them.
In the hot Cardiff conditions, the pace of the game ebbed and flowed, with prop Freddie Barnes being to only player to cross the whitewash in the half.
Frustratingly the discipline and the penalty count was costing RGC, as it was giving the homeside opportunities to gain points and field conditions.
Ollie Wynn added some spark with a darting run down the pitch as Cardiff scrambled to grab in at full pace stopping the Gogs scrum-half.
The penalties continued to rack up for RGC and so did the scoreboard with Sam Earl-Jones scoring the only penalty for RGC.
Matters were made worse near the end of the half when Pedr Jones was yellow-carded and RGC faced 10 minutes being a man down in the heat.
RGC came out of the traps in the 2nd half and even with the man down were the attacking side for the opening 15 minutes and played their best rugby of the game as they worked in the Cardiff 22m line.
They were rewarded when Huw Taylor touched down from close range and Sam Earl-Jones converted to make it 14-10 and the Gogs were back in the game,
RGC needed to claim the restart and keep the ball and the momentum but points wise that was as close as the Gogs got, as replacement Joe Williams claimed 2 quick tries with the boot of James on target again, .
The pitch was opening up and the homeside were making good yards, and winning the collisions forcing RGC defend in the afternoon sun and they continued to put a shift in, with Dan Owen covering some metres.
Joe Williams claimed his hatrick try on 75 minutes when he went in under the posts and again James kicked the conversion to make it 35-10
The Gogs got over the line as the game closed with good hands from the backline leading to a try from Daf Williams. Conversion from Earl-Jones.
Head Coach Ceri Jones -
“This is a great experience for the boys making their debut and it will only benefit the region in the longer term. When you field a team with an average age of 22, and so many boys making their Premiership debut and for them to be in the game for so long, then we can take so much from it.
We just need to learn and get better week on week but we need to learn quickly and put that into Newport next week before that cup game at Bridgend.
I thought we did well to come back at the start of the 2nd half with a man down, and actually close the game to 4 points but Cardiff used the experience and we weren’t able to stifle the physicality of the side in that last 20 minutes.
I have to credit the boys in the heat as well, but once Cardiff edged in front they kept going”
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