A bright future ahead for Cardiff despite Euro defeat
CARDIFF caretaker coach Gruff Rees has praised the efforts of his makeshift side after another battling performance in Europe on Saturday.
Despite missing more than 40 players once again, the Arms Park side pushed English champions Harlequins for the best part of an hour before the magic of Marcus Smith and brute force of Alex Dombrandt gave Quins a 43-17 win.
However, another day where pride was the overriding emotion for Cardiff has left them with something to build on when Dai Young – and the vast majority of his squad – emerge from quarantine.
“I’ll gladly give Dai his job back,” joked academy manager Rees when asked about keeping the interim gig.
“There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes.
“It would be nice if we can get back to the Christmas derbies with a bit of normality. Integrating the other boys back will be important. It’s welcoming to have them back.”
And with young talents like Theo Cabango and Cameron Winnett shining, the hope will be that these two weekends will be looked back on fondly in years to come as an important step.
“Development is often where talent meets opportunity,” added Rees. “They’ve had the chance to show they’ve got a future in the game.
“But, even more so, I’ve just paid tribute to the senior boys in the huddle as they’ve created an environment where the young guys and semi-pros can come in and flourish.”
“We had to back up a tough physical effort from last week (against Toulouse), but we did that.
“We enjoyed our rugby for the most part and, 55 to 60 minutes in we were well in it – we got held up over the line – but then credit to Harlequins, who squeezed us a little bit.
“We were punched out, I guess, trying to play catch-up with their bench coming on and it got a bit stretched.
“But, overall, it’s been a great couple of weeks for the club in terms of playing in this competition and playing some good rugby in this competition with a mix of players you would have never thought of four to six weeks ago.
“We’ve come from totally different backgrounds, but it’s been developmentally brilliant for some of our academy boys to be around the senior players.”
■ A blueprint for Cardiff’s future? Pages 48&49