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URC shock: Cardiff rout the Sharks in Durban

By PA
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - NOVEMBER 27: Thomas Young of Cardiff Rugby celebrates scoring a try during the United Rugby Championship match between Cell C Sharks and Cardiff Rugby at Hollywoodbets Kings Park on November 27, 2022 in Durban, South Africa. (Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Thomas Young starred for Cardiff as they thrived in the Durban rain to claim a famous 35-0 victory over the Sharks.

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No Welsh region had previously won in South Africa since the inception of the United Rugby Championship last season, but the Blue and Blacks – without a victory outside of Wales since March 2021 – adapted better to a torrential downpour in the first half to take control of the match.

Dai Young’s men punished their hosts’ numerous errors and chalked up a penalty try and a Young touchdown as they opened up a 23-0 half-time lead, with Jarrod Evans kicking 11 first-half points.

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Young went over again after the break before Ben Thomas wrapped up the bonus point, with Evans adding two more points with the boot.

Both sides were without their Wales and South Africa stars due to Saturday’s out-of-window internationals, but Cardiff’s achievement was nevertheless a hugely impressive one.

Evans got the visitors off the mark from the tee after two minutes, but the they suffered a setback when Josh Turnbull was yellow-carded following a clash of heads with Anthony Volmink.

Conditions worsened as the half progressed and were reminiscent of those witnessed at Hollywoodbet Kings Park in the Sharks’ defeat to Edinburgh last season – their only previous home loss to European opposition.

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Evans doubled Cardiff’s advantage as the match entered the second quarter and the capital region were awarded a penalty try after Marnus Potgieter was deemed to have deliberately knocked the ball dead to prevent Young from touching down. The Sharks wing was also sin-binned for his troubles.

Another Evans penalty made it 16-0 and a Volmink spillage opened the door for Young to race over after Cardiff picked up the pieces, with Evans’ conversion sending the tourists in at the break with a margin they could only have dreamed of ahead of kick-off.

The rain had relented somewhat by the second half, but Cardiff had not.

A driving maul guided Young over for his second try 10 minutes after the restart, although Evans was unable to add the extras on this occasion.

Cardiff had the bonus point in the bag eight minutes later when they got the ball out to Thomas on the left to go over in the corner, and Evans rediscovered his range to convert.

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The Sharks looked to have finally opened their account after 65 minutes, only for Francois Venter’s try to be disallowed for a knock-on in the maul.

Evans missed a penalty before time was up, but there was no taking the gloss off the victory as Cardiff kept their hosts pointless.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline? Are the All Blacks doomed to a 70% flatline?
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