Why man in the cup shock of all

Steve Ford and Mike Rayer were in the backs, Jonathan Humphreys, Mike Griffiths, Stuart Roy, Mike Budd and Hemi Taylor were among the forwards.

But Evans had made a decision to rest a significant number of his stars for the visit of St Peter’s, with Pontypridd to face at Sardis Road just three days’ later.

It was a call that was to come back to haunt the man who would coach Wales at the 1995 World Cup. A key condition for an upset had been set in place. CARDIFF ran an early penalty, another indication of their confidence, but St Peter’s climbed into them at forward and by half-time led 6-0. Then two minutes into the second-half, winger Gareth Snook touched down for the minnows.

The hosts responded by making what some deemed a blatant tactical substitution – not allowed at the time – with out-of-sorts fly-half Geraint Lewis being replaced by Wales international Adrian Davies, the leading scorer in the Heineken League for that season.

He immediately started pulling the strings and three penalties followed.

Hall’s 77th-minute try cut the deficit to just two points but Davies couldn’t make the conversion. And when he missed with a last-ditch penalty attempt, during a lengthy spell of added time, the game was up for Cardiff.

Goliath had been downed by David.

IT was then that the fun really started.

Referee John Groves hadn’t expected anything out of the ordinary post-match.

“Pretty much everyone came up and thanked me, including Cardiff’s captain Mike Hall,” the former official remembers. “I had played eight minutes of injury time because St Peter’s were playing for time.

“I had no idea that anyone had an issue, then a couple of TV boys came up to me and said: ‘Have you heard what Alec Evans has been saying about you?’”

Queenslander Evans, never one to call a spade a subterranean digging implement, had said: “I’ll probably get shot for saying it, but you can’t have a five-dollar referee in a £20,000 competition.

“I can’t say much without being critical of the referee. St Peter’s did all they could without getting caught and