Cardiff Match Report

The TV cameras were back as Ebbw fell to Cardiff on Thursday night in Jason Strange’s first match back as Head Coach.

The visitors were first on the board when just two minutes into the game Rhys Jones kicked a penalty to give the Steelmen the lead. Cardiff would soon level with a penalty of their own, Aaron Coundley soon sin binned for a late hit. Cardiff taking full advantage of the extra man quickly racked up two tries before Ryan Evans saw yellow for taking out Theo Cabango, who was certainly in for a try had it not been for a late tackle.

New signing Alex Howe grabbed a try of Ebbw’s own before the break, but it wasn’t enough to force pressure on the Blue and Blacks! Six further tries would follow despite some parity at the scrum, but Ebbw Addicts in attendance last Thursday would certainly agree that it’ll take a few games before we see any noticeable game plan change.

“The tone of the game was set in the first 10 minutes really. For all our efforts and commitment, we were tactically quite poor and unforced errors never allowed us to get that back. We could have gone in 22-10 but didn’t and that would have been a massive bonus.

“Lots of work to do, but we learnt lots. If you’re on the back foot and under pressure you tend to give away penalties and cards. We’ve got a lot more to worry about than discipline, the foundation of our game needs to be stronger.

“The enthusiasm was very good first half and we’ve come up against a team in form and we’re at the start of a long journey for the players, who are understanding what they want and what we want from them.

“I’m not too worried about other teams, we’ll get our own house in order,” said Jason.