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'We drew the equivalent of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Man City'
Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt accepted that his side had no answers to a quality performance from Harlequins following their 54-15 rout in front of a sell-out crowd at the Arms Park.
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The Welsh region matched their more illustrious opponents in the first 25 minutes but once Quins upped their game, Cardiff were left chasing shadows as the Londoners virtually booked their place in the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup with a home game against Ulster next week to come.
Jack Walker, Will Evans, Andre Esterhuizen, Will Beard, Dillon Lewis, Fin Baxter, Tyrone Green and Marcus Smith crossed for the visitors, with the latter converting seven to celebrate his 150th appearance for the club with a personal tally of 19 points.
Thomas Young scored two tries for Cardiff with Tinus de Beer adding a penalty and a conversion, but they have only secured two points from their three games in Europe with a trip to Racing 92.
Sherratt said: “Let’s be fair no one expected us to get very far in the competition when we drew the equivalent of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Man City in our group.
“We had good energy in the first half and scored a couple of decent tries, but we lost a lot of confidence with that try just before half-time.
“It was unusually quiet in the dressing room at half-time as that try knocked the stuffing out of us.
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“We were beaten by a better side in most areas and what you can’t do against quality sides is help them to use their firepower and I believe we did that on a few times tonight.
Attack 
147
Passes
193
109
Ball Carries
153
225m
Post Contact Metres
469m
6
Line Breaks
9
“They are well ahead of us in terms of foundation and there isn’t a quick fix as we have to start virtually at the bottom.
Harlequins head coach Danny Wilson, who was previously employed at Cardiff, ensured that his former side were not going to be underestimated.
“Cardiff have been playing well lately and they should have beaten Bath so we came here knowing how dangerous they can be,” Wilson said.
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“They obviously came with an aerial gameplan and they got a fair bit out of us using that tactic in the first half, but we adjusted well.
“We got set-piece dominance and played a strangling game with our driving line-out going well before we were able to execute our customary DNA.
“I lost here when I came back with Glasgow so it’s nice to return with a 50-point win and it was a good night all round.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Let’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
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