Cardiff Crushed

By TigerR
January 16 2007

In the glory years (1998-2001) matches at Welford Road were often over by half time and Deano would make a raft of substitutions. This match reminded me of those days. But is that observation of significance?

It was a cool dry day in Leicester with some sunshine but also the threat of rain. More significantly there was a fairly stiff wind from the south west. This meant that the touchline by the Crumbie Stand was sheltered whilst there was a significant blow towards the Alliance and Leicester Stand on the north side of the pitch. Cardiff seemed to have won the toss and decided to play towards the club house. From the kick off Cardiff ran the ball when Tigers expected a kick to touch. Rabeni was deep which left Czekaj unmarked and he streaked down the pitch in front of the Crumbie Stand. Some slick passing had Leicester scrambling towards their try line when the whistle went for a forward pass. Cardiff never threatened to win again. Within six or seven minutes Leicester were 12-0 up through tries by Tuilagi, all power as he carried three Blues over the line, and Hipkiss, who showed commendable pace over half the length of the pitch when he found himself clear after Phillips spilled the ball when tackled by Moody. The Cardiff gamble to give Leicester the wind had backfired. Humphreys was using the wind well to kick for position, the Tigers pack was winning lots of ball in the loose and Tigers were pressing for more scores. Two more tries, by Gibson and then by Rabeni, who crashed through several weak tackles by defenders in blue following a super inside pass by Geordan Murphy, brought the coveted bonus point. It was 30 minutes into the match. The crowd were in full voice and Cardiff dug deep to prevent further scores. At half time it was Tigers 24 Cardiff 0.

The second half saw Cardiff come out with commendable resolve to take advantage of the wind. It was about the best side they could have put on the pitch and they were not going to lie down. Kickable penalties were spurned for attacking line outs in the corner. The Tigers pack repulsed the forward drives and the Blues backs, although very nippy, just failed to find an opening.

Then the siege was broken and a rolling maul/forward surge over 40 meters ended with Lewis Moody touching down. This was followed a few minutes later by a sweeping move down the touchline that ended with a try for Martin Corry. Yes, Martin Corry. It's not just Dan Ward-Smith that can give England a threat in open play.

The game concluded suspiciously early but both sides were grateful. Tigers had used all but one of their subs with Humphreys (ham string), Gibson (knee in the back) and Smith (a worrying recurrence of his knee problems) having to come off. Harry Ellis finished the match playing on the wing.

This was an excellent performance. The whole pack stood out, they won the match on their own by denying Cardiff any quality possession, but the backs looked very sharp, which has not always been the case.

Was it significant? Yes and no. This looked good enough to be compared to the teams that won Premierships and European Cups, but it was at Welford Road. Tigers problems in the last few years have been on the road. There is no harder place to go that Thomond Park. Next week is the real test but the signs are good. This team is on the up..