Cambridge 34

Cardiff Blues 49

On a chilly Monday evening, Cambridge welcomed Cardiff Blues to Grange Road on the back of last week’s impressive effort against the Saints. A young light Blues side full of running rugby and confidence took on the academy side of one of Welsh rugby’s giants in what looked set to be a mouth-watering clash. The bumper crowd was not disappointed.

In much the same vein as last week, Cambridge got off to a bad start; a spilled catch from the kick-off led to a quick turnover for Cardiff resulting in Corey Allen scoring under the posts. Cambridge were trailing 7-0 before the first minute had ticked over on the scoreboard.

Cambridge had to quickly look to get a foothold in the game and the experienced centre partnership of John’s boys Sandy Reid and Fred Burdon looked like their best option, both looking lively and breaking through the Cardiff line. However, a handling error was quickly capitalised on and within seconds Cambridge found themselves once again behind their own posts.

Despite a shaky start, the light Blues did not crumble and instead considerably upped their game. They began to dominate possession as well as the set-piece with William Briggs single-handedly taking apart the Cardiff scrum on numerous occasions. Cambridge were rewarded for their persistent pressure with captain Jimmy Richards knocking over a penalty which was quickly followed by a textbook catch and drive from a line-out with Tom Stanton crossing over to score. Suddenly the score was 14-10.

Cambridge continued to dictate proceedings with ease as our very own Sebastien Chabal, Tom Harrington, bossed the line-out and Rob Stevens looked continually threatening on the left wing. Yet persistent spoiling from Cardiff thwarted any opportunity to play the free, running rugby which has thrilled spectators so far this season. As half time approached, Cardiff’s ruthless exploitation of a simple overlap meant the score, perhaps harshly, at half-time was 27-13 in favour of the Welsh.

Cambridge came out after the break still reeling from the smash and grab way in which the first period had ended and conceded a very soft try from a speculative chip and chase and with the gap growing to 26 points after 55 minutes the game was threatening to run away from them.

Yet once again to their credit they fought back. With Sam Hunt coming on at 9 and Richards moving to fly half quick ball was finally coming quickly to the backs, Cambridge were able to utilise the pace of Ilia Chezerov to make some useful ground and once again a superb catch and drive try from the forwards, quickly followed by a great solo effort from Matt Guiness-King brought them right back into the game.

The last ten minutes saw the game completely open up with both sides throwing caution to the wind and tries aplenty, the pick of which arguably coming as Fred Burdon completed a great team move to take Cambridge’s total up to an impressive 34 points. A last-gasp effort from Cardiff saw the final score at 49-34 and brought a thoroughly entertaining game to a close and one which acts as a fantastic advert for running rugby.

Despite the loss, there are once again many positives to be taken from this Cambridge performance. The Blues continue to punch above their weight, dictating play against some of the biggest academy sides in the country.

If the forwards can transform the platform they create at the set-piece into the breakdown at open play, with the speed of Sam Hunt’s distribution at the base and the agility, pace and skill of a consistently threatening backline, things could begin to look very promising. Cardiff travel to the Other Place next week to take on the dark Blues which should act as a good barometer as to where each team is at with a date at Twickenham only six weeks away.