Tough Start For Dai Young The Coach

New Cardiff coach Dai Young got an early taste of the harsh reality of life on the touchlines, but he also gave his players a flavour of the hard line he intendss to take at the Arms Park this season.
If a 44-35 first home defeat at the hands of Glasgow was a shock to his system, it didn’t compare to the shockwaves the former Wales and Lions front row hard man sent out when he susbstituted Iestyn Harris.
There were no qualms about Harris’ goalkicking, he hit the mark with all six kicks, but his tactical kicking was all at sea. It meant Glasgow were able to run in five tries and bag the full five points in a game they feared they would lose.
“There were mistakes from quality players – basic errors that weren’t down to the coaches, but down to poor personal standards,” said Young.
“I came into this job with my eyes wide open and I knew there were going to be bad days. I’m not the sort of person to start badgering my players – they don’t need me to tell them about the basic mistakes they made.
“I substituted Iestyn was because I felt we needed a little bit of a spark and fresh legs – it was that more than a tactical change.”
Harris, a £1m converted from rugby league a year ago, marked his Cardiff debut with a four try salvo against Glasgow in the Heineken Cup. A hero on that occasion, he had some parts of the crowd baying for his blood as he missed touchfinder after touchfinder.
“Cardiff had enough ball to win the game, but they kept on giving it back to us,” was the veredcit from Glasgow’s new Kiwi coach.
“We’re obviously please to have got the win, but we are nowhere near where we need to be. The big difference was in our defence.”
Even though Cardiff managed four tries to pick up a bonus point – they would have earned two bonus points had Harris’ replacement, Nicky Robinson, not missed a point blank conversion with the last kick of the match – attack after attack floundered because of Glasgow’s rugged defence.
“People have said we have got a problem with our front five, but that wasn’t the problem this time. There were errors all over the park,” said Young.
To make matters all the worse for Young, he saw hooker Greg Woods go to hospital for x-rays on a potential fractured arm and No 8 Emyr Lewis come off with a shoulder injury.