Fixture

Having gained an excellent 60 point win against Swansea University on Wednesday and with another important BUCS Super Rugby derby against Cardiff University facing Cardiff Met this coming Wednesday, Director of Rugby Dan Milton once again entrusted the task of gaining valuable National Championship points to a different group of players.

The students got the perfect start building an attack inside the Tata 22 which resulted in Ieuan Pring crossing for the game's first try within two minutes. The try was successfully converted by James Mattin to give the students the start they would have been looking for. Despite a great deal of endeavour from both teams there was little in the way of quality rugby and the only score was a penalty kick for Tata Steel by full back Geraint Llewellyn. This score seemed to energise the Cardiff Met efforts and following a period of concerted pressure, centre Will Rigg burst over for a try which was again converted by James Mattin. 

The Cardiff Met scrum was causing problems for the home team gaining a number of penalties and turnovers which made it difficult to understand why they were penalised at a scrum in which the Tata pack was retreating at some pace. The students continued to pressurise the home defence and were rewarded with a third try just before half time when captain Dan Thurston crossed giving the Met a 3-19 lead.

Cardiff Met began the second half trying to attack out of their own 22, but a poor pass led to a turnover in possession which Tata were able to capitalise on to create a try for wing Amir Walji, converted by Geraint Llewellyn. Once again the game then deteriorated into a period during which neither side was able to produce any continuity in their play although it was clear that the Tata team were struggling to contain the pace and power of the student fifteen. The physicality of the Cardiff Met team finally produced the outcomes they were looking for with four tries coming in the final 20 minutes - try scorers Harrison Button (2), Bradley Roderick-Evans, Iwan Shenton - with three conversions from the boot of James Mattin.

The final scoreline of 10-45 and five league points was just reward for this group of players who had experienced some tough fixtures in recent weeks but have stuck together and used the experiences gained from those games to gain this important win on the road. Congratulations to all involved!