Ponty came out on top in a 26-25 thriller at Sardis Road to complete a whole decade of not losing to their arch-rivals on home soil. It was their 13th successive win over the Blue & Blacks at the House of Pain and avenged their one point defeat at the start of the season.
Diggy Bird put the boot into his old team mates as he kicked 16 points to steer Pontypridd to a massive victory for both them and the league. The big question now is can Cardiff be caught?
Five of their remaining 10 games are at home, where they haven’t been beaten in the league since the first day of last season, and they have three games left to play against teams currently in the bottom three.
Carmarthen Quins and Aberavon both have a game in hand behind them, so the gap could be cut to a mere nine points, but even so it is going to be more about how many games Cardiff lose from here on in, rather than how many their rivals win.
One of their former players, Diggy Bird, came back to haunt them at Sardis Road. The home outside half kicked 16 points to pick up the man of the match award, while opposite number Gareth Thompson missed a penalty and conversion on his 100th appearance in Blue & Black.
“This is always a great game in which to be involved and it was as huge win for us. We worked hard for it and we came in on Boxing Day for an extra training session,” said Bird.
“Defensively we were very good. We knew they were going to come with a big attack, but we shut them out and forced them to run out of ideas.”
It had been 24-23 to Cardiff in the first meeting of the season at the Arms Park and so there was some poetic justice in Ponty pipping their biggest rivals by a single point. The lead changed hands four times in the game and it took a brilliant piece of back tracking by Alex Webber to deny Terri Gee a last gasp try that would have won the game for the visitors deep into injury time.
Both Gee and Webber stood out as class acts and each scored a try to underline their talent. Gee’s break away from deep in his own half saw him break clean through and reach the Ponty 22, where he ran out of support and was turned over.
It was the final act of defiance from the home side and the game ended after they had reclaimed the ball and kicked out. Webber got the game off to a sensational start with a solo run that saw him weave his way past four defenders to score the opening try with less than a minute on the clock. Diggy Bird added the extras and then kicked a penalty.
Cardiff used their driving line-out to create tries for prop Thomas Davies and flanker Alex Everett as they hit back to lead 15-13, but Ponty led at the break thanks to another piece of magic from former Wales Sevens wing Webber as he off-loaded in the tackle to send Sion Parry over for another try that Bird converted.
Bird hoisted his match tally to 16 points with two more penalties in the second half, while Cardiff conjured up a third try for flying wing Gee that Gareth Thompson converted. That score once again gave them the lead before Bird had the final word on the hour mark.
