John Mulvilhill praised the young back row of Shane Lewis-Hughes and James Botham after Cardiff Blues closed the book on the 2019/20 season with a Guinness PRO14 victory over Ospreys at Rodney Parade.
It would be an understatement to say that it’s been a season of ups and downs, but more than 11 months after the campaign kicked off in Port Elizabeth, Wales’ Capital Region sealed a memorable double over the Welsh rivals.
Having made a number of changes following last week’s defeat to Scarlets, Mulvihill was delighted with how the youngsters fronted up to a side which included two British & Irish Lions in the form of Alun Wyn Jones and Justin Tipuric.
The Australian also applauded his side’s work ethic and the experienced half back partnership of Lloyd Williams and Guinness Man of the Match, Jason Tovey, who maintained a 100 per cent record from the tee.
“After last week, the boys had to front up and we did that today,” said the head coach.
“Today’s victory was based on sheer hard work. We had a real basic game plan, where we hit the gain-line and kept the ball in front of the forwards, and I think it worked really well.
“Jason Tovey is really experienced and both he and Lloyd Williams really controlled possession.
“We were probably unlucky at half time to go in with the scores as close, because the bounce of the ball for Matthew Morgan, which led to their try, could’ve gone anywhere.
“But I think we really controlled the game today.
“Shane Lewis-Hughes and James Botham were both immense today. They were awesome.
“They prepared really well after being very disappointed that they didn’t have a good go last week.
“But they’ve definitely put their hands up.
“If you have a look at those two, along Navs, Olly and Boydey, we’ve got a pretty strong bunch there.
“What we saw there today was the sharpness and a little bit of x factor.
“Both of them haven’t played for five months, but they played 80 minutes today against an international pack and really fronted up physically.”
It was an unique situation for Wales’ Capital Region. With the Cardiff Arms Park playing a part in facilitating the Dragon’s Heart Hospital, they temporarily adopted Rodney Parade as home for the final Guinness PRO14 clash of the season.
Mulvihill was pleased with the setting in Newport, but focus now turns to the start of next season, with a short turnaround before we getting going once again.
“We’re really proud that the Cardiff Arms Park is associated with the Dragon’s Heart Hospital,” added the head coach.
“We had an opportunity to go to Pontypridd or Merthyr but the Guinness PRO14 have got a booklet that’s about 90 pages-long on Covid, and there were sponsor compliance so we couldn’t get there.
“But we were lucky enough for Rodney Parade to host us.
“It turned out to be a fantastic day, and it was a great pitch to play on.
“The boys will have a week off now and then we’ll get back into preparations. Hopefully in the next week we’ll find out how the competition will pan out and what teams are in it.
“We just have to wait and see. Whether it’s PRO12, 14 or 16 - we just want to know what the start date is, who we’re playing and we’ll just get on with it.
“For next season, we need to make sure we start better. In my first season, we dropped a few early on and this season was exactly the same.
“We’ll take momentum from this game, have a week off and take that momentum into the preparations before probably heading into another derby.”