Head coach Matt Sherratt celebrated the atmosphere at Rodney Parade, as his side earnt a bonus point victory over Dragons RFC on Boxing Day.
Cardiff were greeted to a hostile reception by the packed home crowd, with Sherratt calling it ‘brilliant’ and described the thrilling derby as a ‘great advert’ for Welsh rugby.
“It’s a tough place to come and I think it’s as tough as I’ve seen it today as well,” said Sherratt.
“Full house, booed off the pitch after the warm-up, which is brilliant. It’s what the derbies are all about.
“I think it’s actually a good advert for the league and Welsh Rugby, with two sets of fans going at each other and two teams going at each other for 80 minutes.
“We’re just always pleased to come out on the right side of these games.”
The Dragons came out firing in the opening stages and held a 15-0 lead before Cardiff eventually hauled them back in.
The Blue and Blacks changed their kicking tactics in the second half, which Sherratt believes was key to the turnaround, and praised his back line for staying in the game and taking their opportunities.
“We were 6-0 down penalty count in the first 20 minutes and just every little thing went for them. Obviously they were emotionally charged as well, and Rio puts a ball through, sits up and scores.
“Then a couple of probably penalties where I felt especially early on in scrums usually the ref gives it time to settle went against us so it was just about talking about our discipline and how we got field position.
“I felt in the first half we got trapped between the 10 metre line and our try line for a while so we changed kick strategy at halftime to kick a little bit longer and try and force them back with our defense which came through I thought in the second half.
“It’s so easy in these games for a back line to close their eyes to opportunities because it’s wet and it’s a derby, it can almost be the back saying over to you to the forwards, so I was really pleased with Gabe’s try where our forwards are still moving the ball.
“It was really about discipline and how we got more territory and stayed positive when we had the ball.”
The match saw Taulupe Faletau up against Aaron Wainwright in the battle of the number eights, with Sherratt praising both players’ performances.
“They’re two brilliant players aren’t they? I thought they both showed moments today.
“Toby’s obviously getting back up and Aaron showed with the first try, he’s a powerful back rower so Wales are lucky to have them both I think.”
The victory over Dragons took the Blue and Blacks to third place in the BKT United Rugby Championship standings, and although things are looking up at the Club, Sherratt isn’t getting carried away.
“It’s brilliant, it’s great for the club I think. I’m not going to get majorly excited now in December but it’s obviously a much better feeling than it has been.
“You’ve seen over the past month or so re-signing our young players, keeping the likes of Liam Belcher, the appointments we’ve made in the Academy, that we’re still a Club that’s trying to grow the foundations really.
“Obviously getting some wins and sitting in a nice place in the table is an added bonus at the moment, but we’re still just bubbling along really.”
“We spoke about making sure we’re always in the fight. We made sure that we play a brand of rugby that the club’s famous for in terms of the type of players we’ve had.
“What we spoke about this season is trying to grow on last season so keeping the same fight which you saw in abundance today but then probably turning those little narrow losses into narrow wins, so let’s continue for as long as we can.”
Sherratt also provided an update on captain Liam Belcher who is out for up to two months with a torn calf.
“He’s probably going to be missing for between six and eight weeks which is not good news unfortunately,” added Sherratt.
“We are disappointed but it’s a position where we’ve got depth. We showed against Dragons we’ve got good depth at hooker.
“Dafydd Hughes was solid first-half and Evan Lloyd came on and played pretty well.”