Unforgettable, that is, for the red shirted Cardiff Uni players and fans as they turned recent history on its head to make it two wins from two this season by triumphing in the last play of the game to notch their first competitive victory over Cardiff Met.
It was 24-20 to host club Cardiff Met going into the dying moments of the game. Then Cardiff Uni got down into the 22 and used their powerful driving line-out to full effect to drive over for the matchwinning score and make it 27-24.
This is now a proper fixture in the Welsh Rugby Calendar, and I love it!
Young people having the time of their lives with their mates. Proper bedrock-of-sport stuff.
Roll on the rematch in December! https://t.co/pFmsJ6t934
— Dave Rogers (@DRoj) October 6, 2022
The honour of bagging the try that made history went to replacement back row man James Roberts after backs joined forwards in one last effort to drive Joe Cowell and his Met pack back over their own line. They succeeded and Ed Dunford, the former Wales U18 cap, nonchalantly added the extras to ensure victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat.
“I have to confess I thought that fate was going to be cruel to us again and it was going to be another agonising near-miss for us. Fair play to the boys, though, they worked their socks off right to the final play and never gave up,” said Cardiff Uni head coach Alan Flowers, who had seen his side lose three derby clashes last season by a mere five points.
“They thoroughly deserved what they got in the end and that is our first competitive win over Cardiff Met. Having got so close to them three times last season it was a sweet moment to come out on top.
“If it wasn’t the greatest game, it was certainly a magnificent occasion with 4,000 fans in the ground. Our boys walked through Cardiff City centre to get to the ground and the university students cheered and clapped them all the way.
“The culture that has been created is wonderful and to finally get to see Theo Bavacqua, from the Cardiff Academy and Wales U20, playing for us and enjoying it so much was brilliant.
“He made a big impact up front along with our tight head Adam Williams. The whole pack played well and Ed Dunford ensured we played the game in the right areas.
“We didn’t have a great first half and at the break I told the players to go out and express themselves more. They did just that.
“That’s two games in a row now that we’ve won with the last play of the game. We hadn’t won in Bath for many years until last week and the confidence we’ve gained in winning our opening two matches is something we now have to build on and feed off.”
Dunford kicked two first half penalties, but Cardiff Met led 17-6 at the interval thanks to tries from outside half Bradley Roderick-Evans and wing Jake Thomas, who was playing against his former team mates.
Roderick Evans ghosted down the narrow side to score wide out on the right, while it was a Bingo Ivanisevic break that paved the way for Thomas to score as he got on the end of a pin-point Roderick-Evans cross-kick.
Roderick-Evans completed a polished first-half performance by adding two conversions and a penalty. It looked like being an uphill struggle for Luke Pollock’s side in the second half, but they conjured up two tries to get their noses in front.
Hooker Ben Chapman burrowed his way over shortly after the re-start and then lock George Shaw grabbed a second from a close-range line-out. Dunford converted them both to turn a 17-6 deficit into a 20-17 advantage.
Cardiff Met weren’t done, though, and no sooner had they gone behind than a charge down of Josh Thomas’ attempted box kick on the Cardiff Uni 22 led to Ali Stacey scoring in the left corner. Roderick-Evans took his match tally up to 14 points with another superb, touchline conversion and it looked as though it was going to be another heartbreaking defeat for Cardiff Uni.
But they managed to work their way into the home 22, won the last line-out and drove over to bag the winning try that sent their fans into wild celebrations. Dunford’s wide-angled conversion was the icing on the cake.
“We’re very disappointed, but full marks to Cardiff Uni because they deserved their win. We now know what it’s like to be on the wrong end of one of these tight contests,” admitted Cardiff Met director of rugby, Danny Milton.
“But what a great advert it was for BUCS Super Rugby with 4,000 fans packed into the Arms Park. We’ll have to take a look at the game, reflect and try to get better.
“There are no easy games and we’ve got a tough one coming up next in Exeter Uni. There are still 16 games to go in the league before we hit the knock-outs stages and we have to learn from this.”
Swansea University slipped to back-to-back defeat as they went down 34-10 at the home of newly promoted Nottingham University. The Welsh side got off to a terrible start when they conceded possession just outside their 22 and saw their hosts open their account with a simple hack and chase try.
They recovered to lead 10-8, thanks to a Rory Case try, but Nottingham went back in front with a chip and chase try from outside half Max Brown to make it 15-10 at the break. There were no more points until the 68th minute, but from there on Nottingham dominated and added 19 points without reply, including three more tries.
