Carmarthen’s win was all the more impressive considering Cardiff had seven players in their 23 who performed strongly against both Toulouse, and Harlequins, respectively in the Champions Cup before Christmas. This was the only Premiership game to take place this weekend due to a combination of covid and the weather.
The hosts made a strong start with Theo Cabango, benefitting from some tremendous handling from his inside backs to touch down at the far right-hand corner. Jack Maynard added the extras, but Carmarthen began to fight their way back into the game.
After a period of sustained pressure in the Cardiff 22 former Wales under 20s prop Ben Leung powered his way over from short range, with Steffan Marshall adding the extras from right in front of the posts. Maynard knocked over a further two penalties, but Carmarthen hit back at the stroke of half-time.
The referee awarded a penalty to the visitors in the Cardiff 22, and they caught the hosts napping by taking it quickly. What followed was some tremendous interplay between backs and forwards with Kalum Evans eventually scoring. Marshall added the extras meaning the west Walians turned around with a 14-13 lead.
Carmarthen started the second-half like a house on fire with their forwards making headway from one up carries. And after some strong surges the ball was popped up for Leon Randall to score their third try, with Marshall converting.
But Cardiff had an instant response as James Beal sliced through the visiting defence to run in unopposed from 40 metres out. Maynard failed with the conversion, but Marshall extended Quins’ lead with a tremendous penalty from 45 metres out on the angle.
Cardiff lay siege to the visiting defence over the next 10 minutes, but were held up twice over the try line. Marshall kicked another penalty for the visitors, but Cardiff refused to throw in the towel and hit back with a try of their own.
Cardiff’s back line looked dangerous all afternoon, and Ioan Evans showed his pace to finish off an excellent team try. Maynard converted to make it a one score game with just 10 minutes remaining.
Cardiff threw the kitchen sink at Carmarthen in the final stages of what was a pulsating encounter, but the west Walians showed what they were made of with an excellent defensive set to secure a significant away win.
