Cardiff’s Women Rugby team came out victorious at this year’s Welsh Varsity by thrashing Swansea with an 81 point to 0 following a 90 minutes show of performance by the Cardiff side.
This year’s match was back in the Cardiff Arms Park after the game was forced to be moved last year to the Principality Stadium after Cardiff Rugby fell into administration. Cardiff Womens Rugby achieved the thrilling 13-try win over Swansea after showing courage in front of a home crowd for the second time in a row for the Welsh Varsity.
Cardiff entered the game in confidence after their 102-7 win against Swansea in last year’s Welsh Varsity and after 6 minutess of play, managed to pass the Swansea defence and score their first try following a penalty conceded by Swansea. Three minutess later, Cardiff scored again and a conversion took them to 12 points up in the first 10 minutess.
Their final try of the first half came following a scrum in Cardiff’s own half and a show of teamwork by the side which saw Karo Thomas accelerate towards the tryline and offloaded the ball to Eva Lewis to finish the job – Cardiff 43, Swansea 0.
As the referee blew the whistle for half time, the score stood at 45-0 for Cardiff as they rushed in 6 tries in total and it was obvious from the half time point that Cardiff were no force to be reckoned with and would come through triumph.
Throughout the game, Cardiff showed courage and resiliance as they constantly battled although having a clear lead from early on. Defensively, Cardiff remained strong to ensure a clean sheet and that Swansea stayed at 0 points.
As the second half got underway, what followed was an accumulation of scores as an additional 36 points was added by the 90th minutes and the first of those scores came only 3 minutess in as the side scored their 7th try to take the total to 52.
The last points of the came came Cardiff’s way after 74 minutess as Cleo Pallister-Turley crossed the line for Cardiff as the final nail in Swansea’s coffin. The final score, Cardiff 81, Swansea 0.
Speaking to Gair Rhydd, the loose head for the Cardiff side, Swyn Prysor said that: “playing varsity was a great opportunity, and was definitely a brilliant way to finish off my university career.”
“The game was a testament to how hard the team has worked all season, especially coming up against such difficult opposition, and a great way to end the year.”
“We talked a lot during the training camp about playing a fast game and really challenging Swansea, and I do believe that the 81-0 score reflected that. The explosive, expressive game we worked on also showed the talent of the squad, with 13 players scoring a try each in what was a great display of our style of rugby here in Cardiff.”
This was Swyn’s last appearance on the pitch for Cardiff Women’s Rugby and was also a way to end on a high for their Head Coach, “It was also a great send off for our Head Coach, Nic, who has really pushed our standards as a club to get us to perform at that level, and we as a club cannot thank her enough.”
“Swansea had some dangerous spells, with the girls managing to keep them away from the tryline with some excellent tackling and patience. Celebrating on the field with the team was spectacular, and was great to see all of our hard work paying off.”
They managed the 81 point win in front of 10,000 student crowd and it’s fair to say that the celebrations with the evening reflecting their triumph which contributed to Cardiff’s total win of 42.5 points to Swansea’s 9.5.