LONG READ Cardiff bringing the positivity back to Welsh rugby

Ring the church bells and alert the village elders, for you are about to read a positive column on Welsh rugby. That’s right. A positive piece of rugby writing about Welsh rugby. There are of course big issues in Welsh rugby. Everyone knows that. But for some reason it has almost become fashionable to taint all news in Welsh rugby with the same brush. But it’s a brush that Cardiff Rugby don’t deserve to have swished upon their achievements this season.

Making the URC playoffs as a Welsh region is a massive achievement. Cardiff finished 6th, just 10 points behind Glasgow (in first) and with just one less win than Leinster. To finish just one win behind a squad like Leinster’s  should not be underestimated. Leinster’s spend on rugby is one of the highest globally and something which very few teams, from any country, can compete with. In raw rugby resourcing terms (facilities, stadium, size of squad etc.), we’re talking about the difference between caviar and the frogspawn that you’d find in a long-forgotten wheel barrow in the back garden. But despite all of that, Cardiff managed to finish in with the big boys.

As a team Cardiff played a very different style of rugby this season – influenced by the impressive Corniel van Zyl and Gethin Jenkins. It’s a style which separates them from the Cardiff squads of three to five seasons ago, in that the current focus is on defence rather than flat out attack. In truth Cardiff’s defence was solid last season too. They finished top of the URC’s defensive metrics in the 24/25 season – metrics which measure a combination of tackles made, tackle completion, turnovers made and turnovers lost. But this season they have gone one step further in not only finishing in the top three of the URC’s defensive metrics but also reducing the number of offloads that they have thrown. In 2024/25 Cardiff threw 110 offloads in 18 matches, this season they threw 77. That’s a 30%-ish reduction, which is a massive difference when it comes to rugby metrics, and clearly a deliberate strategy.

Stats and data aside, it worked and made Cardiff a very difficult team to beat at home – which for teams with limited budgets and squad depth is all that matters.

Rugby is of course a team game, but it is impossible to ignore the individual contributions made by certain players in the Cardiff Squad. Josh McNally is one.

This isn’t to say that Cardiff haven’t ‘created’ at all this season. They have. But it has been far more measured an approach with less of a focus on risky offloads and more of a focus on accurate play in the 22 – especially with regards to quick tap penalties. Cardiff’s use of ‘i-formation’ backs, setting up behind each other, only to fan out later in the move, has led to some exquisite tries in very small spaces – Jacob Beetham’s second try in the final game against the Stormers being a fine example.

Rugby is of course a team game, but it is impossible to ignore the individual contributions made by certain players in the Cardiff Squad – many of whom are either home grown or frugally recruited. Josh McNally is one. He joined in 24/25 with very little fanfare and has since become their most important player. McNally is a proper second row. Not a lock hybrid. A proper second row. He’s 6ft 7 inches tall, the best part of 20 stone and has a skull the size of a 13kg patio gas canister. He levels ball carriers, and rucks, at a level which JCB can only dream of – he is arguably Cardiff’s best ‘value’ signing ever.

Then there’s Dan Thomas, who also joined the club with limited chatter in the media, only for his name to be lauded in every post-match discussion since. He is half man, half garden-vac, and his ability to suck up virtually anything from the ground had led Cardiff to deliver one of the best attacking turnover ratios in the league. Thomas has this weird ability to make a ‘jackal’ regardless of his position on the field, or the level of pressure in the game. He executes a ‘jackal’ on his try line in the same way that he would on the opposition’s tryline. The number of times that he has won the ball on Cardiff’s own tryline this season has been truly mesmerising – he finished top of the URC for tackles made and second for jackal turnovers.

We can’t forget Tom Bowen. Is he a man, or is he a mosquito? By the time you’ve answered that question he’ll be 15 metres past you and about to dive in the corner – often untouched by a single defender.

Then there is Ben Thomas, whose role in the Cardiff backline is hugely underrated. He is the ‘distribution’ in that backline. And whilst he may lack the required bulk to consistently hit the gainline at test level, that shouldn’t taint how the rest of his skill level is judged – he is genuinely beautiful to watch. And we can’t forget Tom Bowen. Is he a man, or is he a mosquito? By the time you’ve answered that question he’ll be 15 metres past you and about to dive in the corner – often untouched by a single defender.

But it’s not just the onfield stuff that has impressed at Cardiff this season. So too has the crowd. When results improve, so does supporter engagement and there is no finer example of that than Cardiff this season. Three seasons ago you could walk up to Cardiff Arms Park, if you had a spare couple of hours, buy a ticket and go in to watch. This season tickets have been heavily sold in the weeks/days prior, meaning that Cardiff Rugby have now become a team that you need to make plans to see, not just show up on a whim.

This season the Dragons have improved visibly – their run in the Challenge cup being a particular highlight. That the Ospreys won the Welsh Shield in the URC, and performed as well as they did, is a miracle given the stresses under which they have played. But Cardiff are without doubt the Welsh team of the season. Making the playoffs is an achievement worth singing about, even if moaning seems to have temporarily overtaken singing as a Welsh rugby stereotype.