It wasn’t that the teenage Cardiff Met prop was worried about going head-to-head with the English champions in the Heineken Champions Cup – he had other things on his mind.
“We were all thrilled to see Joe come on in the second half of Cardiff’s game against Toulouse. It was great that we as a club could help out,” said Cardiff Met director of rugby, Danny Milton.
“We had another request from Gruff Rees, who is coaching the Cardiff team at the moment, to allow Joe to play against the Quins at the weekend and I spoke to him about it.
“We’ve got a big BUCS Super Rugby game against Cardiff University at the Arms Park on Wednesday night and it would have meant him missing out on that ‘Christmas Cracker’.
“I told Joe we would support him in whatever decision he made and he decided to ring Gruff himself. He told him he was grateful for the opportunity, but that he was a Cardiff Met player and didn’t want to miss out on our big clash.
“In all my time here I don’t think I’ve ever come across anything quite like it, where a young player puts his commitment to his university and his team mates above his own career development. He has developed tremendously since he has been with us at Cyncoed and has become a big player for us.”
A former Dragons U16 age grade player, the 19-year-old came on for the COVID isolation-hit Cardiff side in the 53rd minute. His opposite number at the time was the French international tight head prop Dorian Aldegheri and five minutes later the giant Paulo Tafili.
Cowell packs down against some highly promising props in Super Rugby, as well as in the Admiral National Championship, but at 127kgs (19 stones, 14 lbs) Tafili was on a whole new level.
Tonight he will be back at the Arms Park grappling with the more manageable Ed Thompson, a civil engineering student who is president of Cardiff University club. When the two teams last met at the Arms Park earlier in the season it ended up as a 26-23 win for the Met. Currently in fourth place in the table, they could do with another win to back up their recent success over Swansea University, 25-23.
“We are a combative side but we probably lack a bit of quality to mix things up. We are targeting a top four finish to secure a home quarter-final, which is massive in this competition,” said Milton.
“We drew with Durham and beat Loughborough at home and they are the two best teams we have played in the competition. The good thing is we’ve played them both twice already in the first half of the season, so our run in should be a bit easier in the new year.”
Cardiff Uni may be one off the bottom, but their crushing 35-7 win at Leeds Beckett University gave them a real boost. Now they are ready to throw everything at the last fixture until the New Year.
They are tied on 17 points with Swansea, who host Leeds Beckett this week. Meanwhile, there will be a strong Welsh influence in the Exeter University side that faces current leaders and reigning champions Durham in the west country.
“They don’t come bigger than this game and we owe them one after they beat us up there. We want to knock them off the top by getting our revenge – it’s personal,” said Wales U20 lock Dafydd Jenkins.
