Cardiff show their class to overcome problems

By ROGER PANTING

Ospreys …………… 21pts

Tries: Parry 45, Thomas 63, Lake 67

Conversions: Anscombe 45, 63, 67

Cardiff ……………. 38pts

Tries: Young 25, 58; Llewellyn 29, Grady 31, Carre 77

Conversions: Priestland 25, 29, 31, 58, 77

Penalties: Priestland 39

Cardiff overcame a month of turmoil with a superb performance by destroying Ospreys to pick up the Welsh Shield and with it European Champions Cup rugby next season.

In the past few weeks the club has seen the sad death of its major benefactor, Peter Thomas, the departure of key players, Jarrod Evans and Dillon Lewis, the retirement of Josh Navidi and finally the suspension of Director of Rugby, Dai Young, after allegations were made against him.

It was therefore remarkable that Young's son, Thomas, together with scrum-half, Tomos Williams, were the leading lights in an excellent team effort which saw their opponents chasing shadows as they trailed 24-0 at the interval.

Assistant coach, Richard Hodges said: “Dai (Young) was involved up to and including Thursday so all the preparation was done and therefore there was no disruption.

“We devised a gameplan to run them around the field and we executed that tactic superbly as we had their forwards going from north to south and east to west. There was only side in it in that first half as ensured that we weren't involved with in a box-kicking close-range contest.”

Cardiff dominated the first quarter but surprisingly it finished scoreless with Mason Grady coming closest but he lost possession trying to force his way over.

Ospreys conceded nine penalties in the opening 25 minutes and eventually their ill-discipline told as their opponents scored three tries in six minutes.

Young forced his way over for the first before Williams quickly took a tap penalty to race 40 metres before sending Max Llewellyn over.

Worse was to follow for lethargic Ospreys, who missed foraging flankers, Justin Tipuric and Jac Morgan, when Young burst away from a maul to kick ahead for Grady to collect and evade the attentions of Luke Morgan.

A brilliant half for Cardiff could have been capped when Jarrod Evans, Williams and Llewellyn produced some mesmerising handling to see Young cross but TMO replays ruled out the try for a marginal forward pass.

However they still led 24-0 at the interval after Priestland kicked a pen-Five minutes after the restart, they opened their account when Sam Parry finished off a line-out drive but Williams intercepted to send Young on a 45 metre run for his second try.

In a more competitive second half Gareth Thomas and Dewi Lake responded with close-range tries in quick succession after Cardiff 's replacement, James Botham, had picked up a yellow card for not retreating ten metres. Scoring those two tries

Ospreys still had a squeak of a remarkable comeback but Cardiff regrouped for Rhys Carre to batter his way over and secure a morale-boosting victory.

Ospreys' head coach, Toby Booth, said: “It's a very disappointing end to a difficult few weeks.”