v Cardiff

[Malpas69]

Given where the Club is at the moment (rebuilding under new Coaches), I am not sure that realistically any supporter went to Cardiff thinking that we could get a result last night (myself included). All I wanted was for us to be competitive and show a bit of dog and a bit of fight and pride in the jersey. There were definitely glimpses of that, but we just seemed to compound our mistakes and in the end the floodgates opened (or at least started to leak). Discipline again was a problem (two yellow cards), but as has been mentioned previously, this does tend to happen when teams are under the pump for prolonged periods of the game.

In terms of the positives, I thought that our scrum went well throughout the game. Cardiff had the nudge a few times, but so did we and we comfortably secured our own scrum ball. I thought that the full back had a good game positionally, particularly with Dan Fish calling the shots from outside half for Cardiff. I thought that Alex Howe showed up well in what was a big step up and Jonny Evans tried to get us on the front foot with some clever passing and kicking. It was also good to see Rhys back at outside half following his injury lay off.

On the flip side, again, our lineout was a complete shambles and we are desperately lacking a lineout exponent who can win ball (and, as I have mentioned previously, a second row or two in general as I am not sure that either Ethan Doyle or Alex Grey are the answer to our second row void. Both are good back row forwards (as is Dan Hill) and all are wasted by playing in the boiler house. We always seem a lot smaller than any pack that we play against. I have already mentioned our discipline, but we are also making silly mistakes that we cannot afford to make. Last night, we knocked the ball on in midfield, conceded a penalty from the scrum, Cardiff kicked to the corner, rolling maul, try, seven points! The last try really summed up our night. We knock the ball on on the Cardiff line, scrum to Cardiff, number 8 makes a break, passes to a back (winger?) with pace, who scores up the other end. That was a 10/14 point swing!

If we are going to start winning games (which I know that we will), then we need to cut out the silly mistakes and definitely improve our discipline. Cardiff away on the plastic pitch is a tough gig, probably one of the hardest places to play, especially with the team low on confidence, so quite difficult to gauge where we are right now. I felt that there were glimpses last night of us starting to turn the corner and maybe the score was a little unfair and flattered Cardiff a little bit. Having said that, they were the far better team in most facets of play and had pace behind the scrum that we just could not cope with.

I hate talking about 'must win games', but Friday night at home against Llanelli is definitely a match that we are more than capable of winning. I am sure that Jason and the other Coaches can see where our deficiencies are (definitely the second row) and I, for one, have every confidence that we will improve over the course of the remainder of the season.

[jadegoodiesfridge]

No point in making excuses. Well and truly beaten by a team whose back line has to be the fastest I've seen for a very, vary long time. But, yeah, I too thought the score flattered Cardiff. Were we THAT BAD !?..... No... I don't think so. Jason pointed out in his interview that we could have gone in at half time just 12 points behind. Didn't quite happen, and at 27- 8, the game was gone. Think we did right by making wholesale changes early in the second half, with next Friday in mind. Give everyone a bloody good run out.
Malpas has nailed the match, and where we are at. So opportunity for me to have a gripe.
A.). Plastic pitches, don't you just love them. The way the ball was bouncing off that pitch, mostly in Cardiff's favour, at times it seemed we were playing the Harlem Globetrotters. Leave the plastic pitches for football. Not suitable for rugby.
B). The referee. Didn't catch his name, either I'm going deaf, or the P. A was mumbling, Basically he tested my patience. Endless treks to look at the monitor, endless lectures to Dominic, Endlessly looking the other way when Cardiff infringed. Typical example. Aaron was shown a yellow for a late tackle ( reviewed by TMO) on their Ginger wing(h) er ( God, he made a meal of that), then minutes later one of our players is tackled by a headlock. No yellow, just a penalty. And so it carried on. Dan Fish getting smashed off the park just before half time, resulted in another Cardiff penalty, simply because Ebbw tackled him. Or so it seemed. A ref that was just out to make a name for himself in front of the cameras.
C). Last, but not least, Cardiff's infamous clock. I actually looked at the clock just prior to half time when we were just one score behind, and the game was in the 32nd minute. I looked again a few minutes later and the clock read that we were in the 28th minute !!!! What the hell.....!!!???. Ah !! A trip to Cardiff Arms Park under the lights. We seem to be having plenty of them gone lately. Don't you just love it.

[String]

I really dislike the plastic pitches.
The bounce and ball skip on them is so different to real grass it provides a big advantage to the home team who is used to playing on it.
I really don't like the things at all (not specifically this game but in general).
That's without the big increase in things such as ankle injuries, layers of skin removed and so on.