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Ospreys overcome a first-half red card to grab URC draw at Cardiff
By PA
Ospreys overcame the 38th-minute dismissal of lock James Fender to earn a 13-13 URC draw against Cardiff before a sell-out crowd at the Arms Park. Despite the red card, the visitors continued to be the better side with Cardiff having to survive sustained late pressure in order to pick up two points and cement third position in the league.
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Dan Edwards scored all Ospreys’ points with a try, two penalties and a conversion while James Botham and Dafydd Hughes grabbed Cardiff’s tries, with Ben Thomas adding a penalty.
Cardiff were quickly out of the blocks to dominate the opening exchanges and turned down three kickable penalties in favour of attacking lineouts and, from the last, they were rewarded with a try from Botham.
Ospreys took their penalty count to five in the opening 10 minutes but they sparked into life when Reuben Morgan-Williams burst away from a scrum in the hosts’ half. Edwards was on hand to carry on the move but Morgan Morris lost possession in the process of touching down.
Ospreys continued to spurn chances with Edwards off-target with a straightforward penalty before the home side suffered a blow when they lost wing Gabriel Hamer-Webb to an injury.
It was Cardiff’s turn to get on the wrong side of the referee as they conceded five penalties in succession, but the visitors continued to be careless with Max Nagy blowing another opportunity when he quickly took a penalty close to the opposition line.
However, they did appear to have scored when Keiran Williams tore through the defence to send Morgan-Williams over but TMO replays showed an earlier knock-on so they had to rely on a penalty from Edwards to put them on the scoreboard.
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Two minutes before the interval, Ospreys suffered a hammer blow when Fender was sent off for a neck roll on Dan Thomas. Cardiff led 5-3 at half-time, with Ospreys bringing on James Ratti in place of full-back Nagy for the second half, and the first real action after the restart saw Teddy Williams yellow-carded for persistent team infringements.
Ospreys immediately capitalised when Edwards danced past some weak tackling for an excellent individual try but the hosts responded swiftly when Hughes finished off a line-out drive.
Williams returned from the sin-bin but was soon replaced there by Rhys Litterick for persistent scrum infringements, with Edwards kicking the resulting penalty. Thomas immediately responded with one for Cardiff to earn his side a scarcely-deserved two points.
Dan 'Gandalf' Edwards sprinkles New Year magic at Cardiff Arms Park ??#BKTURC #URC | #CARvOSP pic.twitter.com/LfPiMswYXb
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) January 1, 2025
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