Match Report

Cardiff 25 - Neath 19

Arms Park, Sat 7th Mar 09 KO: 14:30

CARDIFF remain Neath's bogey side after making it six wins on the trot over the champions.

Five league successes along with a cup victory are included in that tally, but this latest triumph by Owen Ruttley's side was hard earned.

However, Cardiff stuck to their task well in wet conditions to make it eight out of eight since losing 32-3 at Llanelli back in November.

Continuous drizzle made for a scrappy affair, and in the end solid virtues saw Cardiff home.

Prop Kristian Gay and flanker Rhys Shellard were their best forwards with Gay pulling off a couple of crunching tackles - one on Neath wing Kevin James in front of the main grandstand.

Though Cardiff frequently relied on the kicking game through fly-half Lee Jarvis and full-back Craig Morgan, they did look dangerous on the few occasions the ball was given air.

"There's a lot of smiling faces in the changing room after this win over a top side like Neath," explained Cardiff coaching consultant Phil Davies.

He went on: "It was end-to-end stuff from start to finish, and in fairness to Neath they rallied strongly towards the end.

"There were a lot of errors in the contact area - as you would expect with a wet ball - but it was exciting game, as there was never more than 10 points in it."

Davies' schedule will now take him from Italy this weekend with Wales U20s to Cross Keys with Cardiff on Tuesday week.

Next up for Neath is a rearranged home league fixture with Bedwas a week on Thursday - and this is a game they simply have to win.

In all probability, the Blacks will have to card victories in their seven remaining matches to stand any chance of a fifth successive title.

The loss against Cardiff was a seventh of the season, and it also forms the highest number of losses suffered by a side taking Welsh Premiership honours - Neath back in 2006-07.

"It might sound like sour grapes but at the moment Neath are not getting the breaks, especially on the road," said Neath director of rugby Rowland Phillips.

"Once again we created enough opportunities to have won the game, and all we have ended up with was a losing bonus point."

Cardiff built momentum towards an eighth consecutive league win with a seventh-minute try from wing Ryan Howells.

All Neath mustered during the first period were two penalties from fly-half Arwel Thomas while opposite number Jarvis registered one.

Just before the break, yellow cards were shown to both Cardiff lock Matthew Veater and Neath scrum-half Kevin Farrell, and the Blue and Blacks led 8-6 at half-time.

The game continued to stutter on the restart with Cardiff making a big statement in the 57th minute via a Gareth Chapman touchdown - his 50th in the Welsh Premiership.

Along with a third Jarvis penalty it opened up the biggest lead, 19-9, but Neath weren't finished despite having flanker Shaun Miles yellow-carded on 69 minutes. Tries from replacement centre Dafydd Lockyer and their best player, hooker Gerwyn Price, then made it 22-19.

But Cardiff, who completed the scoring on the back of a Gareth Davies penalty, went on to successfully wind down the clock.