Liam Belcher reflected on another tight East Wales Derby at Cardiff Arms Park, stressing that narrow margins have become the norm whenever Cardiff and the Dragons meet.
Aside from one high-scoring outlier in recent seasons, Belcher noted that encounters between the two sides are typically decided by small margins, a sign of fierce competition in the derby.
“I think two years ago was the anomaly where we put a lot of points on them,” said Belcher. “Other than that, we’re always within three to seven points. It’s always close games.”
“They’ve got their foundations in place, we’ve been in that position before where three years ago we didn’t have much foundations. It’s a building block and you do want to see a competitive Dragons, and they are right now. It’s good for Welsh rugby and it’s good for the league.
“They’ve come on leaps and bounds and it’s good to see.”
That competitiveness was evident again in a tense closing period, with Belcher admitting Cardiff made life difficult for themselves after controlling much of the contest.
“I’ll be honest, it was a head scratcher that last 20 minutes,” he added. “We will have a look at that because there was a bit of it in the Scarlets game as well. We had our systems in place in the first 60 but we went off script again, boys going individual, especially in the red zone. Realistically I thought we could have put that to bed with about 15 minutes left.”
Belcher was quick to acknowledge the Dragons’ resilience, crediting their ability to stay in the fight and apply pressure late on.
“Credit to the Dragons, they’re a gritty team and they have improved a lot in the last two games that they’ve won,” he said.
The Cardiff captain also underlined the importance of responding after the previous week’s setback, describing the derby win as a key test of character.
“Last week was our first loss where I thought it hurt us a lot, so to bounce back was our first challenge and the way we showed up in training, led us into the game,” Belcher concluded. “No game is perfect but there is a lot to work on from that last 20 that will keep us focussed.”