Cook contemplated hanging up his boots after leading Jersey Reds to the English Championship title last season, while Smith came ‘home’ from Cornish Pirates. Both had topped 100 appearances for Cardiff Blues earlier in their career and are now acting as catalysts to help revive Ponty’s flagging fortunes.
“I loved it, the weather the atmosphere and it felt great to be back where it all started for me,” said the 31-year-old Cook.
“I contemplated hanging up my boots, but this is an exciting place to be at the moment and I want to play my part in helping the club get back to where it used to be. There is a great squad of players and the support is simply fantastic.
“It was very hot out there and the last time I played at Sardis Road, in a British & Irish Cup game against London Welsh, it was on a grass pitch. The artificial surface is very, very quick, but also very hot.
Cardiff would surely have won had they not received three yellow cards. Flanker Nathan Hudd, prop Freddie Barnes and replacement hooker Joey Tomlinson all went to the bin for breakdown offences and the first two left their side playing with 13 men for a crucial period.
Josh Phillips gave the home side an early six point lead with two penalties, one from a metre inside his own half, but Cardiff led 13-9 by the break. Scrum half Tom Habberfield picked out Dewi Cross with a delightful inside pass to allow last season’s leading league scorer to sprint to the line and then inspirational skipper Morgan Allen played skittles with the home defenders to score with a bullocking 15 metres burst.
Harrison James added a penalty and Phillips kicked his third on the verge of half-time. With the visitors reduced to 13-men, Smith rounded off a free-flowing move to score in the right corner to cut the gap to two points.
James landed a penalty to stretch the lead to five points, but back down to 14 men again for the final play of the game the Blue & Blacks conceded a try to debutant Will Keep from a driving line-out into the left corner. The game was saved, but both sides will rue missed opportunities to take all four points.
“It was always going to be a difficult start for us. We only had one pre-season game and this was really the first proper run out for the team,” explained the outstanding Cardiff skipper, Morgan Allen.
“We haven’t got a big squad but there was enough in that game for us to take great heart from the performance. We obviously have to work on our discipline, but that is an easy problem to rectify.”
Scorers: Pontypridd: Tries: G Smith, W Keep; Pens: J Phillips 3. Cardiff: Tries: D Cross, M Allen; Pens: H James.
