CABANGO’S AT THE DOUBLE TO BOOST CARDIFF
ABRACE from Theo Cabango helped Cardiff come back from a 13-point deficit to beat Glasgow in an pulsating URC clash at the Arms Park. Two tries from Sebastian Cancelliere and further scores from Sam Johnson and Fraser Brown looked to have set the visitors on their way to victory.
However, two scores from Cabango as well as tries for Harries and Willis Halaholo saw Dai Young’s side get back to winning ways on their return from South Africa.
It was the home side who started the better. Strong carries from Ben Thomas and James Ratti set the tone from a lineout before Thomas switched back to the blindside to find the scoring pass for Harries in the corner.
Jarrod Evans missed the conversion from out wide, but extended Cardiff’s lead shortly after with a penalty.
Eventually though, the away side – who came into this having lost just one of their last seven games – started to build pressure with three unanswered tries.
Their first try came from a couple of Cardiff errors. Kirby Myhill’s lineout was picked off, before Kyle Steyn breezed through Willis Halaholo’s tackle in midfield to break away and release Cancelliere to score under the sticks.
Not long after, they’d take the lead as relentless red-zone pressure was rewarded as Johnson stepped through from close range to dive over.
The third came on the half-hour mark, with hooker Brown coming up with the ball after an 11-man maul had rumbled over the line.
To Cardiff’s credit, they managed to hit back before the break. Patient build-up in the Glasgow 22 seemed to have gone to waste when Harries spilled possession, but Cabango reacted quickly and stepped over to score. The TMO’s replays showed the ball had gone backwards from Harries, meaning the try was fine.
As a result, Young’s men trailed by just six at the break, but an awful start to the second-half soon put them two scores behind again.
Looking to start quickly, Cardiff got on the attack early, but Thomas’ poppass was picked off by Cancelliere just as the home side had worked a three-on-one. To make matters worse, the wing raced away to cross for his second and Glasgow’s fourth. As such, it seemed inevitable that Glasgow would be on the right side of the result, having lost just once in their last 18 league meetings with Cardiff.
Soon though, Cancelliere would get his timing wrong with an attempted intercept following a scintillating break from Halaholo, The winger would receive a yellow card and, while off the pitch, Halaholo would step his way over following some good work just shy of the hour mark as the Wales centre’s influence on proceedings grew.
He would be involved again for Cardiff’s go-ahead try. After sustained forward pressure, he slipped the ball out the back to Evans, who then freed Cabango to race over for his second try.
Despite blowing a gilt-edged overlap to seal the game in the final 10 minutes, Evans’ penalty with two minutes to go made sure of the victory.