It's All Black on the Night, as Cardiff Crumble

By Paul
January 4 2003

A classy all-round performance from Neath, sent them into a Celtic League Final with Munster. Cardiff were in truth rarely in the game, other than at the beginning of the second half. It always looked like it was going to be the side in black's night.

The opening half was as one sided as you could get. The visitors were shell shocked by the tenacity of the early Neath onslaught. Attack after attack into the Cardiff 22 was absorbed up by desperate defending, but eventually more and more gaps in the city slickers defence began to open up.

It was inevitable that the first score would go the way of the All Blacks, number eight Nathan Bonner-Evans drove over from short range. An earlier Jarvis penalty, moved the home sides advantage up to ten points.

Tongan inside centre Dave Tiueti added to his sides ever tightening grip on the game, taking a well timed inside pass to add to the Blue & Blacks woes.

A Iestyn Harris penalty miss just before half time, was a major physiological blow for his side. It meant that a Meadowbank like comeback was needed.

And it seemed for the opening minutes of the second half, we might witness a comeback as stunning as that witnessed in the quarter final stage, when scrum half Richard Smith on the left touchline hacked the ball through towards the corner, where the ball sat up for him to touch down. Harris converted. A penalty from the stand off put Cardiff within touching distance.

But they failed to sustain their only real period of controlled possession, and when Lee Jarvis sent the Cardiff defence the wrong way with a dummy drop goal, to score his sides third try of the night, the match was over realistically as a contest.

Full back turned winger Gareth Morris rubbed salt into blue & black wounds, dashing in over in the corner to complete the rout.

Jarvis deservedly finished with man of the match award. The outside half finished with scored 17 points with a try, 2 penalties and 3 conversions.

The referee Alan Lewis had a great match, although All Blacks blind side flanker Alfie Mocelutu should have been given more than just a warning for deliberately head butting Emyr Lewis. The Cardiff number eight was out cold for several minutes. I'd be surprised if Robert Norster doesn't cite Mocelutu.

A 1st of February date with Munster at the Millennium Stadium awaits Lyn Jones and the Black Army in the final.

A full round up of all this weekends action coming tomorrow.

Neath: Durston, G. Morris, Storey, Tiueti, S. Williams, Jarvis, A. Moore, D. Jones, B. Williams, Millward, A. Newman, G. Llewellyn, Tandy, Bonner-Evans, Mocelutu.
Not Used: A. Bateman, S. Connor, Horgan, A. Jones, Martin, R. Phillips, S. Jones.

Cardiff: R. Williams, Walne, J. Robinson, Allen, Morgan, Harris, Smith, Payne, Woods, Fourie, Sennekal, Tait, Baugh, M. Williams, E. Lewis.
Not Used: Young, Collins, A. Jones, McShane, R. Powell, N. Robinson, Dewdney.

Scorers
Neath - Tries: G. Morris, Tiueti, Jarvis, Bonner-Evans. Cons: Jarvis 3. Pens: Jarvis 2.
Cardiff - Tries: Smith. Cons: Harris. Pens: Harris.

Attendance: 6,471
Referee: Allan Lewis (Ireland)

All gloating or excuses on the message board.....