Preamble
A pleasing sell-out crowd and a Big (Chief) Red Cloud-sponsored Nige reffing augured well for a festive atmosphere and a good local derby contest. Even the weather was fair at the start, favouring the Blues in the first half before turning Newport Docks evil in the second, when the unfortunate Dragons had to play into the bitter wind and driving rain.
The Encounter
After a start almost as bright as the Dragons’ peeled-satsuma away kit, things looked promising. Decent lineout ball and early indications of a strong mauling game, Ashton Hewitt vigorous with and without the ball, Moriarty making a couple of inroads and Taine Basham a whirlwind of energy. After 20 minutes I realized I hadn’t used the fast-forward button, which is normally a technological godsend when watching a recording of a Drags match.
There was even a half-break from The Most Handsome Man in Rugby™, finally getting some injury-free game time for the Dragons.
Perhaps inevitably, the tide slowly turned in the Blues direction. Cardiff’s ‘interesting’ but effective breakdown tactics and the Drags poor clear-out work / sluggish passing combined to slow us down. The Blues defensive line speed and some seasonal goodwill from Nige’s patrolling of the offside line saw us under pressure and getting pushed backwards.
Our attempts to cross the gain line emphasized the poor quality of the Drags front five as ball-carriers, and our 9’s sluggish service meant they often made a standing stand rather running on to the ball at speed.
In contrast to Cardiff, the Drags deployed a more passive gain line defence, spreading across the field like a tangerine daisy chain. Unfortunately, this suited Jarrod Evans’ excellent heads-up with time-to-spare game management. A lovely dummy sent Welsh Legend Wainwright into the wrong player as Evans glided through a gap to send winger Lewis-Hughes in for the opening try.
Cardiff were taking command, and some very poor box kicking from Rhodri Williams who seemed to misjudge the conditions and playing surface (we are not in Rodney anymore, Rhodri), meant the bright start petered out. But lo, against the run of play the Drags executed a good driving maul from a lineout, and that man Basham bustled over for the touchdown. 10-5 at the, ahem, oranges.
Cardiff started the better at the outset of the second half, unsurprisingly with all the elements in their favour. But some dolly-drop passing on the Drags 22 saw an intercept from Basham, who sprinted towards the Cardiff line chin-on-chest, like a ram looking for a gate. Evans caught up and made the tackle, but Basham kept the ball alive, and after a couple of surge-and-fumbles Screech scorched over at lightspeed..
That was as good as it got from a Drags perspective. The Blues forwards further dominated the collisions and started to push our boys backwards in the tackle. The Drags bench didn’t really make an impact, and after a poor clearing kick from Williams Josh Adams went on a typically surging run. Lane was unable to gather the resulting cross-kick, but Nige yellow-carded Hewitt for I think loitering in his own 22, and a tired Drags team started to leak penalties. The Blues eased to a 16-12 victory.
Pastries and Crumbs
Although the set-piece forward battle was well contested it underlined how both teams have underpowered packs, with neither side really getting the upper hand. The Blues defence was quicker and better organised, and the Drags suffered throughout from slow ball and a lack of forward power. Basham is a fierce competitor and earned his Player of the Match status, and he seems a good leader by example.
Cardiff’s ancient warriors Gill, Andrews and Turnbull seemed to be enjoying themselves, but their Welsh Legends had quiet games, as did our lads Dee, Wainwright and Hill. Amos and Adams seem good acquisitions for the Blues, and Tovey’s last quarter kicking game (the best one of the 3 fly-halves on show) complimented Jarrod’s earlier passing and running work to close out the game.On a positive note, I always thought the Dragons has a squad good enough to compete rather than capitulate as was the case under Blarney Jackman’s peculiar tenure, and so it seems to be. We need more front five oomph which would hopefully speed the half-backs up, but otherwise matches are now bearable to watch. Marvellous.
As reported by OvallyBalls operative MisterIks.
On the telly this week
Friday 27th December
| Ulster 35 – 3 Connacht | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Bristol 21 – 26 Wasps | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 28th December
| Treviso 36 – 25 Zebre | 13:00 | Freesports |
| Northampton 33 – 26 Gloucester | 14:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Edinburgh 29 – 19 Glasgow | 15:00 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Harlequins 30 – 30 Leicester | 16:30 | Channel 5 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Munster 6 – 13 Leinster | 18:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 29th December
| Exeter 14 – 7 Saracens | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Or not. Hello TomP.
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Big Nav over the line but he’s stripped (of the ball) by Iron Danny Cipriani, ball goes loose and is touched down by a Gloucester player. Too fat lads have a dust up.
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Tschüss, Iksy.
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No, that’s wrong, isn’t it?
Was ist los, Iksy?
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10-7 now to Northampton. A catch-and-drive finished by Heywood. Northampton have much more of the ball and territory. Heinz off injured for Glos.
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Heinz back on when I wasn’t paying attention.
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13-7 at the half. Northampton have sorted themselves out. Gloucester doing ok in defence.
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‘Mon embra
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‘Mon ra Weedge!
Said more in hope than expectation…
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Reinach under the posts with a classic scrum half’s try. 20-7.
Northampton now playing some good stuff. Furbank the young 15 looks a fine player.
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Breathless stuff. Ball protection lacking on our part again
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Reinach in for another but it’s called back for a very marginal offside. Unlucky for Northampton.
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Furbank not so strong on defence beaten easily by Chris Harris who collected a good offload (close to forward) from Atkinson to go over. 20-14.
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Reinach in for his second now. Cipriani flings a shocker of a daisycutter across the field and Reinach hacks on, then knees the ball on before collecting and finishing with great pace. 27-14.
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Some dumb embra play going on.
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Ffs groom
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Yay, Darcy!!!!
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Quite rude offload by mata
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Louis Rees-Zammit, best winger in world rugby, in for his second. Surprisingly easy score but some good play in the build up by Glos. 27-21. Entertaining but not great.
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Glasgow lineounot going well
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Bah. Jones. Poop
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Yay! Jones. Brilliant!
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Swinging arm into a Northamptoner’s chops from Hohneck and he gets a yellow.
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Racing lead 29/13 at HT in Brive. Good game. Finn ‘s having a blinder.
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Cipriani goes for a wonder finish diving high aiming for the corner. Furbank gets him and Cipriani’s foot just in touch.
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Speed-Dammit’s in for his hat-trick! Conversion missed.
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He’s done it again. Louis Rees-Zammit, perhaps the best player of any sport in history, gets a hat-trick after a good break by Chris Harris and then some neat hands from the Glos backs. Close game. 30-28 (I think).
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30-26 as the conversion was missed. 4 minutes to go.
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TomP, I managed a 24hr blog kill until your intervention.
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Francis kicked a late penalty and Northampton hung on to win 33-26. Some ok attacking, pissy defence. Entertaining enough.
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Aye, Tschüss is bye, cheerio etc.
Nice short-shrifting of poor ol’ Iks.
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Jonathan Joseph to The Priest and back to Joseph, a one-two and a first try of the game for Bath 11-0 but a big scrap may rule it out.
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Bath 6-0 up against Sale. Good contest but poor skillz. The Priest going well, and Faletau not broken. Still has a massive protection do-dah on his forearm, bigger than Billy V’s plaster smasher. Which is interesting as his last injury was his collarbone.
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It won’t cos the cameras missed it. A female TMO, by the by.
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Now stoppit TomP. I lost my internet connection and in NO WAY had it anything to do with my typing and concentration.
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Taulupe’s a better scrum half than the guy wearing 9 for Bath.
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Yes!
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I think it’s 7 Saffers on the park for Sale at the moment.
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But Coenie Oosthuizen off. But another substitution see J-L du Preez on for Phillips. Still 7.
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McGuigan, who’s just scored, is also a Saffer sort of. 8.
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Bugger.
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Iksy, it was my mistake cos the Czechs use “čus” for both hi and bye.
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All a bit close, this
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Yes! Again!
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Exciting match at Murrayfield!
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“Ffs groom”
Llama losing patience with the stable hands during game time.
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Bugger. Again.
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Eek
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I’m no expert, but I think the ref in the Bath game is struggling to find a balance between nit-picking and being on top of the game, and is falling between the two stools.
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The Priest’s boot going well. Good touch finds and place kicking.
Move over, BDB.
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