Ruthless Cardiff romp to first win of 2022

TWO tries for captain Marcus Ramage and Freddie Barnes helped Cardiff Uni hammer Bath 57-15 to all-but secure their place in the play-offs.

Cardiff were winless in 2022, but a ruthless secondhalf performance with seven unanswered tries saw the Welsh side overturn a half-time deficit to earn a vital win at Cardiff Arms Park.

Coach Alan Flowers was delighted with the way his side dominated their opponents, and urged his troops to take forward lessons for the remainder of the season.

He said: “For the first time all year I think I had a smile on my face!

“We come out in the second-half, changed the game plan slightly and everything just clicked.

“Everything we’d been trying to work on, regarding game management and applying pressure in the right areas, seemed to come off.

“We’ll run through the analysis and try to embed why we had such a good result in the second-half, I’m hoping we’ve turned a corner in terms of our game management and maturity, that’s the key.”

For Bath, their own wait for a win – stretching back to January – goes on, and their hopes of a play-off spot now hinge on the outcome of Leeds Beckett’s postponed fixtures, who trail by six points but have two games in hand.

Beckett lost on Wednesday, but they would have had few expectations against a Durham side that have lost just once all season as they were beaten 37-10 at their Headingley campus.

Leaders Durham stay ahead of Exeter by just one point, after the Devonians won their West Country derby with an impressive 31-13 victory at Hartpury.

Swansea earned a fifthstraight win with an 18-14 win over Loughborough, climbing from ninth to fifth and having bagged a play-off spot with two games remaining.

Loughborough fell victim to another Swans fightback having led 9-0 at the break, and slipped behind Cardiff Met in the battle for third.