Chris Kirwan, SWA : A dramatic comeback sealed with a try by a winger after the 80 minutes had elapsed – anything Shane Williams can do Ryan Howells can mirror, and Newport will be sickened. The ex-Black and Amber plunged a dagger into his former team-mates when he went over at the death to steal Swalec Cup victory for Cardiff. A loss to their fierce rivals is hard enough to take, but one where a 20-3 lead was lost in the space of 15 mad minutes will be devastating for Newport. Defeat is something the Black and Ambers had not experienced in the 13 games they had played at Rodney Parade this season. That is a tally that should have been increased to 14. They paid the price of stopping playing rugby when they had a sizeable lead. Whether some players thought the game was won only they know, but if they did it is a mistake that Sven Cronk will not tolerate being repeated.
“We threw it away,” said the head coach.
“We stopped playing and fell off tackles and once they scored you could see us imploding. It is not acceptable and, as I said to the boys in the changing- room, I thought a few players were a certain way down the track and clearly they are not. We lost that game through not being up to the task mentally when we should have shut the game out.”
When 14-man Newport cleared their lines from a five-metre scrum on the hour it looked like they had sealed their place in the last eight. But a hectic quarter of an hour changed the whole dynamic at Rodney Parade – the home crowd sloped off meekly after the game, leaving a delighted bunch of Cardiff fans to toast victory while it was the away changing-room that was boisterous. That seemed a ridiculous scenario for most of the afternoon, such was the way that Newport bossed proceedings against their uninspired visitors. The Black and Ambers deservedly led 10-0 at the break thanks to a try from impressive centre Adam Hughes and five points from the boot of Chris Wannell. They looked threatening when they showed patience to go through the phases, and when they were able to keep the ball away from the nuisance at the breakdown that was former Dragons flanker Jamie Ringer.
It was a tale of two lineouts with the Black and Ambers ensuring a steady stream of possession while Cardiff’s ex-Newport hooker Rhys James regularly found the grateful hands of his former team-mates. However, Newport suffered from the same affliction that Martin Johnson claimed England had in Rome – an inability to finish off their clean breaks. On-song centre Pat Leach, wing Mike Poole and Hughes all made it through the first line of defence only to fail to either worm their way over or find themselves isolated. But after retaining possession well Newport did go over on 26 mins when Hughes was slipped the ball by number eight Andrew Coombs and then brushed off the tackle of scrum-half Tom Slater. After doing all the pressing, Newport were untroubled in the first 40 – it was only in the five minutes of added time that they were under the pump. First it took excellent scramble defence to stop another former Black and Amber, Jimmy Norris, and the hosts got out of jail again from the last play when powerful centre Darren Ryan took the ball into contact inside the 22 when there were men waiting on the outside.
It seemed Newport had learnt their lesson when they stretched out to 20-3 with a quarter of the game left. Fantastic handling helped Hughes to his second – offloads by fly-half Chris Wannell, prop Dai Pattison and Leach were high risk but brought high reward – before wing Mike Poole went over in the corner from Hughes’ pass. That score came when Newport were down to 14 men, with hooker Andrew Brown yellow-carded by woeful referee James Jones, and a brilliant effort by flanker Craig Hill kept their 17-point buffer. He got his body beneath Gareth Davies over the line when a try seemed certain but the wheels came off when it was 15-a-side. The hosts chased poor kicks badly, invited pressure to be put on them and then tackled woefully to allow Cardiff to constantly get over the gain line. Davies went over after a quick tap and there was another escape when Craig Morgan, a man with plenty of experience to know better, ignored Jimmy Norris when the wing had rugby’s equivalent of an open goal. However, Slater scuttled over with 10 minutes left and the momentum, not to mention territorial dominance, was well and truly with the visitors.
Worryingly there seemed to be a lack of leadership out in the middle. Nobody took the bull by the horns to shift things back in Newport’s favour, there were no big hits, no powerful charges. And two minutes past the 80- min mark Howells won it when he raced onto a terrific pass by number eight Dan Godfrey.
Teams long for the chance to react to such a loss but worryingly for Newport their next game is a British and Irish Cup clash with Leinster, who fielded a number of Magners League regulars last round, in Dublin. Repeat the errors of Saturday’s last 15 minutes and it will be a scoreline that will leave few up for the craic.
Newport: G Wyatt, M Poole, A Hughes, P Leach (S Williams 54), R Owen (K Barrett 57), C Wannell (D Griffiths 31-34), A Quick, D Pattison, Andrew Brown (S Waldron 61), G Robinson, D Rosser (M Workman 62),Adam Brown, R Dale (S Waldron 40, D Goodfield 54), C Hill, A Coombs (capt).
Scorers: Tries – A Hughes (2), M Poole and C Wannell 1c, 1p.
Yellow card : Andrew Brown 50mins
Cardiff: C Morgan, R Howell, G Chapman, D Ryan, J Norris, G Davies, T Slater, I George, R James (L Davies 65), K Gay (P Osborne 65), A Sweet (D Partridge 74), M Veater, J Ringer (N Hampson 59), R Shellard (capt), D Godfrey.
Scorers: Tries – G Davies, T Slater, R Howells and G Davies 2c, 1p
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