It was Alan Flowers’ Cardiff Uni side that reached the last four thanks to a wonderful 14-12 win at the home of former champions Durham – the first time in three years Durham had been beaten at home.
It means Cardiff Uni, who only graduated to Super Rugby in 2018, are one win away from reaching the final for the first time since 1991. In that year they won the title for the fourth time thanks to a 14-3 win over arch-rivals Swansea Uni at Twickenham.
“It was a great performance from the whole side on a terrible pitch. In the end, it came down to the forwards and we were strong enough to hold out,” said director of rugby, Flowers.
“We’ve struggled with so many injuries this season, but the boys have stayed strong and stood tall. We had beaten Durham at home in the league campaign and now have to travel to Exeter for the semi-final.”
Flowers’ side has already done the double over reigning champions Exeter, but will probably start as the underdogs for a game they have been told will be played on campus with no fans.
“We had a crowd of 4,500 at Sandy Park, home of Exeter Chiefs, when we played them earlier in the season. We didn’t have any tickets for that game until 50 were produced at the very last minute for family members,” said Flowers.
“Now they have told us they don’t want to play at their Topsham home, where they beat Cardiff Met in last year’s semi-final, and that we will have to play on their fenced in all-weather ground without any fans.
“That seems to fly in the face of everything this tournament is about – showcasing the great young players who are coming through the ranks.”
Wing Rhyddian Williams was the try scorer for Cardiff in Durham, helping his side to race into an 11-0 lead. Outside half Cam Scott, becoming highly influential at No 10 in the absence of Ed Dunford, kicked three penalties to complete the victory.
Earlier in the day, Cardiff Met were beaten in the knock-out stages for the second year in a row at Exeter, where their brave effort in the quarter-final was ended by a try in the dying moments from Josh Barton that turned a 22-21 Met lead into a 28-22 defeat.
“We were quite confident coming into the game even though the second half of the season hasn’t gone too well for us. The boys had prepped well and their attitude and physicality was great,” said Cardiff met director of rugby, Danny Milton.
“For long passages of the game things went well for us, until a mistake at the end let them in for a try. But that shouldn’t detract from a huge effort from the whole side, many of who were playing their final games in a Met shirt.”
The visitors got off to a blistering start and after Roma Zheng had opened the scoring with a try that Brad Roderick-Evans converted, a penalty try made it 14-0. The first of Exeter’s four tries made it 14-7 at the break before Dafydd Tiueti broke through for a third Met try to make it 19-7 five minutes into the second half.
Exeter worked their way back into the game with a brace of converted tries that made it 21-19. Roderick-Evans’ boot then made it 22-21 with five minutes to go before Josh Barton raced over in the corner for a try he also improved.
Exeter will now host Cardiff University in one semi-final, while Loughborough will have home advantage over Bath University in the other game. The matches have to be played by 16 April, with the final set for StoneX Stadium, home of Saracens, on 19 April.
