k.o. time: 1:35 pm

19 October, 2013

Cardiff Arms Park

Spectators: 11,573

Well, where to start? Too many times over the years we have seen a Cardiff team go in to a match as massive favourites only to lose to a team of less talented players and, in most cases, we’ve noted that this was mostly because Cardiff failed to play as they should have done. Sure, the underdog did its best, it played the weather or it played the ref, or it stopped the game from flowing, but more often than not we have seen Cardiff lose because of their own arrogance in playing the wrong tactics.

So, how refreshing to see this boot on the other foot. The reigning (but clearly not raining) Champions of Europe were robbed of a win at the end of a match where they barely broke sweat, tried to take the proverbial a couple of times and where they so completely dominated proceedings that it was a crime against rugby that they didn’t win. They came to win by a score and they fell flat on their face.

Good. Good enough for them.

There were three determining factors to the result of this game: the way that Toulon approached the game with a static, boring, kick and clap tactic that did nothing to play on the weaknesses of the Cardiff team. The second factor was the weather in that the game began and ended in wonderful sunshine, but the downpour in between was extreme. Local shops were flooded. But, unlike Dave Parade, there was no need for kids with broom handles for this pitch to be playable. The third factor, and possibly the most important, was the growth in confidence of the Cardiff youngsters (and fringe players) as the game progressed with Toulon unable to convert their total dominance in to points.

Whilst the rain had clearly played a large part in Toulon’s unwillingness to run with the ball, it should not have prevented them from attacking the breakdown area where their strength married with Cardiff’s weakness. They approached the game as though they had done no research on Cardiff, had not watched the video of the Exeter game or had even done any training in the week. As the rain fell, we thought that now was the time they would use their ball carriers off Michalak and attack at the fringes. Now we’d see Botha, Armitage, Lobbe and co running with the ball.

No. We just saw Jonny kick it. It was as though Laporte had been replaced by Inverdale as Toulon coach.

The game started with Patchell showing his huge talent and temperament. He kicked a penalty from his own half, near to the touchline, for what must have been approaching 60 metres because of the angle. For most teams, this would have put down a marker regarding field position and discipline, but not to this Toulon bunch. Instead, they just played the same game as Cardiff did. Whilst the home team had no alternative, no Plan B, seemingly no chance, Toulon were just happy to kick and clap. This meant that the first half went through as a game of kick tennis with little else happening. Neither team really looked like capable of scoring a try so both relied on the errors of their opponents to score penalty kicks at goal.

And that really was the story of the entire game. It was unremarkable. We had Cardiff giving it everything that they could but getting nowhere, predictably and Toulon giving barely anything and getting just that little bit further.

We did see some of the big names of Toulon taking, shall we say, liberties with the game. Armitage was trying to run it out of his 22, Williams and Botha were chucking cheap shots, whilst the front row seemed more concerned with macho annihilation of their opposite number rather than pushing them backwards to win the penalties for Jonny to kick.

Even the jockey who was refereeing the game, JP Doyle, was not extraordinary. He was just meh, a little overawed by the bigger names in the visiting teams so the normal home calls went their way, but thank God it rained so that at least something happened.

That was, of course, until the final quarter. Then the fun and games started. Firstly we saw the touch judge awarded Toulon a dodgy penalty for a supposedly late tackle by Halfpenny on Tuisova that was one of those penalties that normally go for the home team. This made it 12 – 15 and we thought that this was the start of Toulon slowly pulling away. Thankfully, however, Toulon had other ideas.

And, so it came to pass, that it was our old friend Michalak who came good for Cardiff.

A scrum between the 22 and 10 metre line of Toulon should have seen them easily clear the ball and camp themselves in the Cardiff half to see out the game. The scrum was, of course, steady as the Toulon scrum had been dominant all game. It was just a simple task for Michalak to pass to Wilkinson so that he could punt the ball away but Freddie chucked the ball to nobody in particular. Mermoz fumbled the bouncing ball and Cardiff had a chance. A single chance.

Yet Toulon still had their chance to clear as this was a Cardiff scrum feed, so they simply had to put in an 8 man shove to win the ball. Right? No. The ball flew out of the back of the Cardiff scrum and Lloyd Williams again looked like a scrum half. He ran with the ball before finding Cory Allen who showed his promise with a jinking, side stepping inside run that got Cardiff near the line. Could this really be happening?

Well, not yet. But the boys showed patience and control as ball carrier after ball carrier was predictably smashed in contact by the bigger opposition. This week, however, the ball kept coming back and it was left to a famous name to win the game.

Having recently come on for Patchell, it was Gareth Davies (a player with a similar physique to his God-like namesake) who waltzed around a Wilkinson tackle to leave himself metres from the line. Surely he would score from here but, no, there was a Toulon defender in the way. The tackle was made, but the player not held, so Davies wriggled over to score under the posts. That Toulon defender? Michalak. God love him.

So now it was 19 -15 and this meant that Toulon would have to score a try in the last play of the game in order to win. Finally, after 79 minutes of complete and utter dross, they started to play. They had speed, vision, recycling and front foot rugby but the Cardiff boys had their tails up. They held out on sheer adrenalin alone with one 82nd minute tackle by Bradley Davies on Jonny epitomising the spirit of the Cardiff team.

They had held on for a remarkable victory in a most unremarkable game. What is key to note here that, whilst the players cannot be praised enough as they gave their all (and no more can be asked) they didn’t actually play very well as a unit. Toulon did nothing to further expose the weaknesses that Exeter emphasised last week so the major weakness in the team wasn’t challenged. If only they were properly coached…….