Cardiff Claim Hard Fought Win

RGC were left to rue the start of the 2nd half, when they were not able to build on an impressive end to the 1st 40 minutes.

RGC 22 Cardiff 29

26th October 2019

Cardiff started brightly to take a 10 point lead with a try from Alex Everett with a conversion and penalty from Gareth Thompson.
RGC made a couple of handling errors at crucial times, which hampered their attack in the Cardiff half.
Thompson missed a penalty, and they also had a try ruled out from the TMO before Billy McBryde got some point on the board for RGC. Scrum-half Efan Jones lit up the pitch with a couple of blistering runs as he looked to fire his side back into the game.

The game suddenly turned on it’s head when winger Rhys Tudor showed some blistering pace and strong running to claim 2 tries as the 1st half ended.  The boot of Billy McBryde's boot added the extra to make it 17-10 at the interval.

Cardiff were down to 14 men at that point when Max Llewellyn was yellowed, but RGC failed to take advantage when the came back out for the 2nd half.
The visitors got back in the game straight from the whistle when the driving maul went over, and Thompson hit the conversion to level the scores. 
Momentum was with the visitors, and when RGC got some front football they gave away a penalty around the breakdown.

As the game went on the Cardiff pack starting to put the squeeze on, and they began to play more of the game in the RGC half.
Barney Nightingale gave the visitors the lead and when Thompson hit the conversion it was a 7-  point lead.
RGC fought back, and started to work some pressure upfront but couldn’t find that space to get behind the Cardiff defence.  

Beau Williams and Rhys Williams carried to make some gain line yards before the scrum started to work as well.
Rhys Tudor claimed his hattrick after the ball was worked from the scrum and the winger took the tackler over the line to touchdown. Billy McBryde was unlucky with the conversion as it pulled wide.

The winger made another good run which opened up the defence with 2 strong hand-offs but was ushered into touch.
The last 15 minutes were played mostly in the RGC half, and the home side began to kick from hand and gave the ball straight back to Cardiff.  The home side were forcing the play and lacked some composure when the had some time on the ball, and kicked it cheaply.

The game pace slowed as the league leaders looked to keep the ball and go through some phases, and the game ended when their pack went over for a bonus point try.

Post Game Quotes: 

Matt Silva “ I thought we put in a good performance, and the result was not due to a lack of effort or giving too much respect to Cardiff.
A few mistakes – missed tackle, poor kick and penalty at the end gave them points on the board and it fair to say we played most of the rugby.  Our composure let us down in the end, and we need to learn that when there is 10 minutes left in the game we don’t have to play like it is the final minute.
Post-game we chatted about the fact they are a good side - unbeaten and supported by the Blues with regional players, and we gave them a game.  
We can take huge confidence from that and the young players will learn a lot from this, so we will take positives from the 80 minutes”