{"id":76987,"date":"2026-05-31T04:48:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/urc-cardiff-disappointed-but-proud-as-season-ends-with-stormers-defeat\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T04:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:48:08","slug":"urc-cardiff-disappointed-but-proud-as-season-ends-with-stormers-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/urc-cardiff-disappointed-but-proud-as-season-ends-with-stormers-defeat\/","title":{"rendered":"URC: Cardiff disappointed but proud as season ends with Stormers defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cardiff lost head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/c75q1632ydro\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">Matt Sherratt to Steve Tandy&#8217;s backroom staff<\/a> just a few days before the season started, with forwards boss Corniel van Zyl making the step up to replace him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We&#8217;re proud of the boys from where we started the season into how we finished,&#8221; said van Zyl.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;To end up sixth, with 16 quality teams, I say would make us proud. Unfortunately we couldn&#8217;t push on to the next step and that&#8217;s the disappointing part.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Van Zyl guided Cardiff to 11 league victories, with eight of those coming at their Arms Park home. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">With only one URC win achieved outside of Wales this season, securing an unlikely play-off victory in South Africa against a former tournament winner was always going to be a tough ask.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The squad landing just a few days before the fixture after a 6,000-mile flight to Cape Town added to their task.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cardiff flanker Dan Thomas has been one of the shining lights this season and again impressed against Stormers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The open-side did not want to accept defeat but acknowledged the steps made in the 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Everyone was happy with how the season went, we made the play-offs which was important for the club, but no-one remembers who loses in quarter-finals,&#8221;  Thomas told S4C.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Making the play-offs is important for the club. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s an odd one, we&#8217;re happy with how the season has gone, but you want silverware. It is back to the drawing board now and we need to start again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cardiff have signed Australian veteran prop Scott Sio next season, which they will hope shores up a scrum taken apart by Stormers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It is obvious, our set-piece needs to improve,&#8221; said Thomas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The Stormers were dominant and we didn&#8217;t cope. We knew it was coming and still couldn&#8217;t stop it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We know the hard work will start in pre-season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/rugby-union\/articles\/cn5pd49vk94o?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardiff lost head coach Matt Sherratt to Steve Tandy&#8217;s backroom staff just a few days before the season started, with forwards boss Corniel van Zyl making the step up to replace him. &#8220;We&#8217;re proud of the boys from where we started the season into how we finished,&#8221; said van Zyl. &#8220;To end up sixth, with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50],"tags":[1657,4245,9852,1004,864,1942,20701,13426],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76989,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76987\/revisions\/76989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}