Dai Young ‘thrilled’ by Cardiff performances
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Cardiff Rugby director of rugby Dai Young admitted he has been “thrilled” by his side’s performances in the first two rounds of this season’s EPCR Challenge Cup.
The Welsh region opened their bid for a third Challenge Cup with a 41-0 home whitewash of CA Brive and then followed it up with a storming 47-10 success at Newcastle Falcons last weekend to lie top of Pool A.
“I’ve been really thrilled over the last two weeks in this competition,” he said. “We’ve played really well, but we’ve got some big games in the derbies coming up and we’re certainly not going to run away with ourselves.”
Young has particularly enjoyed the selection headaches given by his team’s performances, which he feels are the result of Cardiff’s strength in depth.
What a weekend, here's how the #ChallengeCup pools stand after 2️⃣ rounds 🔥
See you in January! 🥳#ChallengeCupRugby pic.twitter.com/WleofkBziU
— EPCR Challenge Cup (@ChallengeCup_) December 18, 2022
“Obviously, every game we’re going out to win, but every game we feel that we’ve got to rotate three or four players a game,” he stressed. “If you have got strength-in-depth, that makes things a little bit easier.
“What we’ve tried to do over the last six to ten months is grow our squad. I don’t believe in a first team and a second team. Along the way, you’re going to get some bumps and I think we saw some of those bumps last season, which we had to take on the chin.
“But a lot of the guys are youngsters who have played in some of those performances and are now looking more and more comfortable at this level. That’s what happens when you’re trying to grow a squad.
“Obviously, our more senior players will then feel under a bit more pressure, so everyone’s fighting for selection and that makes my job a little bit easier, but it also gives me some headaches with selection.”
💥 Bonus Point 🅱🅾🅾🅼 💥
— EPCR Challenge Cup (@ChallengeCup_) December 19, 2022
No one can stop the @Cardiff_Rugby prop, @RhysCarre 🚜#ChallengeCupRugby pic.twitter.com/kyK3l4Ryj6
Young described his side’s romp at Kingston Park as “a pretty complete performance”.
“We were dominant up front, the scrum went really well and the driving line-out went really well,” said the former Wales prop. “We didn’t allow them much platform off their driving line-out and we won the battle of the gain-line.
“We had some real penetration with our carries, which gave us some speed of ball and we took our opportunities.
“I couldn’t ask much more of them. We were in control for most of the game and we’re really pleased with the performance.”
