Cardiff beat the DHL Stormers 22-16 at the Arms Park to reach the United Rugby Championship play-offs for the first time in their history and secure Champions Cup rugby for next season. In front of 10,143 spectators, Taine Basham led the side to a result that pushed them up to fourth in the league table for the time being.
The win came after Cardiff made five changes from the previous weekend's defeat away to Glasgow and did it while missing around 12 players. Callum Sheedy was ruled out by a hamstring injury late on at Scotstoun, so Ioan Lloyd started at fly-half. Josh Adams was out after a HIA, Rory Jennings came into the centre, Josh McNally was unavailable because he was playing for the RAF against the Army at Kingsholm, and George Nott started at lock. Danny Southworth and Javan Sebastian also moved into the front row amid prop rotation, while Taulupe Faletau, Mason Grady, Alex Mann, Harri Millard, Aled Davies and Teddy Williams were among the sidelined names. The Stormers, by contrast, were close to full strength.
Cardiff were hit early when Liam Belcher was yellow carded after four minutes on his own line, and Adre Smith scored from close range soon after, with Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu converting. But Cardiff answered once Belcher returned, levelling the scores with a converted try before turning down a straightforward penalty and going to the corner. The reward came from a maul after a lineout, and they went ahead again on 21 minutes with a try described as one of their best tries of the season. That move involved roughly 25 pairs of hands over five phases, and it finished with Ben Thomas passing back to Lloyd before the fly-half launched the cross kick for Jacob Beetham to finish.
Beetham scored two tries in all, with Tom Bowen and Lloyd adding the others as Cardiff outscored the Stormers by four tries to one. Basham was named Player of the Match, fitting reward for a performance that mixed control, pace and discipline when the margin for error was tiny. Cardiff’s qualification is their first-ever URC play-off appearance, and the result also guarantees a return to Champions Cup rugby next season. They will learn their quarter-final opponent after the final round of regular-season matches is completed, but this was the night Cardiff turned a strong season into something historic.
