Cardiff arrive in Cape Town on Saturday for a URC quarter-final against Stormers with little outside faith in their chances, but Josh Adams says the quarter-final place they earned was no fluke. Cardiff finished sixth, stayed in the top eight all season and have reached this stage for the first time.
The timing is what has put Stormers vs Cardiff Rugby back into focus. The URC predictor published on Wednesday gave Cardiff a 32% chance of winning, leaving only Lions, who travel to Leinster, lower at 22%. For a side that missed the play-offs by a point last season, that is a sharp reminder of how far they have come in a year.
Adams pushed back against the idea that Cardiff have slipped into the knockout rounds by default. “We haven't just crept into these play-offs, let's be straight,” he said, pointing to the fact that they finished sixth and did not fall out of the top eight at any point. Cardiff backed that up on the field a fortnight ago when they beat Stormers at Arms Park to seal their place in the last eight.
Corniel van Zyl, who stepped up after Matt Sherratt left for Wales on the eve of the 2025-26 season, has tried to keep the mood measured. He said Cardiff do not see this as the end and made clear he knows they will be written off, but still believes they can give the tie a serious shot. His side won 11 of their 18 URC games under him and failed to claim a match point only once, a record that helps explain why they are in Cape Town at all.
The backdrop is broader than one match. Cardiff’s path from a summer in 2023 when Sherratt began pre-season with only eight players and sessions were held at a leisure centre squash court in the north of the city to a first URC quarter-final has been steep. It has also unfolded against uncertainty in Welsh rugby, with the Welsh Rugby Union planning to cut the number of professional men’s clubs from four to three.
Stormers director of rugby John Dobson has already questioned Cardiff’s play-off chances and said he was satisfied to face Van Zyl’s side, a stance Cardiff’s players have taken personally. On the Scrum V podcast, Alex Cuthbert, Jonathan Davies and Liam Williams said Dobson’s remark had given the squad extra motivation. Cardiff now get the answer in Cape Town, and the winner moves on to face Leinster or host Lions.
