It was a victory that ended a run of back-to-back defeats and keep the Archers in fourth place at the half-way point of the season. Their next game will be against Exeter University on 25 January – the team who beat them in the semi-finals last season on their way to clinching the title.
Having lost to Cardiff University in the last play of the game in October, and then gone down to bad defeats at Loughborough and at home to Swansea University in their last two outings, there was much for Joe Cowell and his Met team to prove.
In the end they came out and did just that as they turned the tables on their Welsh capital rivals and picked up a bonus point into the bargain.
“It was a game between two sides coming in on the back of two defeats and it took its time to get going. We were definitely looking for a response from out players,” said Cardiff Met director of rugby, Danny Milton.
“Emotionally and physically they were much more in it than in recent weeks. The important thing was we were at the races physically.”
Two driving maul tries proved that point and there were also tries for wings Jake Thomas, against his old university, and Roma Zheng, who is about to link up with Harlequins and potentially follow in the footsteps of two recent Cardiff Met stars in Alex Dombrandt and Luke Northmore.
It was a third straight defeat for Alan Flowers’ Cardiff University side, although they stayed in the battle for most of the game and are still very much in the hunt for a top four finish despite now being in sixth place. They are six points behind Cardiff Met.
“The players can now go home and recharge over Christmas before we get back into Super Rugby in January,” added Milton.
“It has been a tough first half of the season and we have to focus on going back down to Exeter when we return. We have a home fixture against Pontypool to play the before then and we also have a training session against Wales U20.
“They should both gets us ready to take on the champions.”
