Misfits, the Goonies and slippery Fish
Harlequins’ stars nearly brought down to earth by...
FOR a good hour, Cardiff’s rag-tag bunch dared to dream. Their primary school teacher-cum-hooker, Evan Yardley, earned the right to take in his jersey for show-and-tell after the Christmas holidays.
Their twice-retired and slightly out-of-shape fly-half, Dan Fish, went toe-to-toe with Marcus Smith. And their part-time teenagers who normally play for the Cardiff Rags, Theo Cabango and Cameron Winnett, scored a try each to give the mighty Quins an almighty fright.
With 32 players missing due to the Covid quarantine fiasco and a further 10 injured, Cardiff played like a side with nothing to lose.
It felt more like the third round of the FA Cup than the early stages of Europe’s elite competition.
The game was played fast and loose with both sides landing longrange haymakers before a late
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double from Alex Dombrandt spared his side’s blushes.
‘We were talking about ourselves as the misfits and the Goonies within the building,’ said Cardiff coach Gruff Rees. ‘We’ve come from so many different backgrounds.
‘It’s been brilliant for our academy boys to develop alongside guys like Josh Adams. Rugby’s often about sliding-doors moments and there were guys out there from Cardiff Met who will have opportunities in the future. It’s been a great couple of weeks for the club, playing with a mix of players we would never have thought of a couple of weeks ago.’
Cardiff took the lead inside five minutes when Winnett, whose last match was against Pontypridd RFC, slipped past Joe Marchant to score down the right. Both teams were playing on their instincts, trying to inject more tempo than the other. Quins made a power play in the 10th minute to level the scores. Andre Esterhuizen ran a hard line, before Smith and Dombrandt combined to set up Danny Care.
Cardiff could have folded when Adams was retrospectively sinbinned for a dangerous tackle but they made up for his absence with a display of heart and soul. Step forward the slippery Fish. Cardiff’s No 10 recently hung up his boots to become a coach but having accepted the SOS, he found space with his clever kicking game.
Quins found themselves pinned back in their own half. There were fears for the safety of Cardiff’s rookie front-row but, using the scrum as a solid attacking platform, James Botham piled over for Cardiff’s second. Fish and Smith went blow for blow. Never one to be outshone, the Quins No 10 ran the ball back from his own half, interchanging again with Dombrandt, before diving over for a spectacular breakaway score. He kicked the conversion and added a penalty but Cabango levelled the score before half-time when he accelerated down his wing for an equally eyecatching try.
‘It probably took us a good 50
minutes to click into gear,’ said Quins coach Tabai Matson. ‘Jeez, they were passionate. I don’t know what profession some of them do but they should be professional rugby players! When they pull on that Cardiff jersey and roll into England you know they’re going to be pretty aggressive.’
Realising that his side’s European campaign was at stake, Care abandoned the attack-from-anywhere mentality and pinned back Cardiff with box kicks. In a game-changing few minutes, Dombrandt held up Adams before scoring his first try down the other end.
Eventually Quins cut loose. Refereeing decisions started to go against the visitors and Smith took full advantage, sending a kick for Marchant to score down the left.
Cardiff’s bench were barely out of schoolboy rugby and ultimately they were overwhelmed by the Quins power with Dombrandt and Esterhuizen crashing over to crush the Welsh dream.