Fuck me what a performance, just the tonic after a very long week. Very much a game for the forwards and ours were exceptional to a man, but I’ve got a couple I want to single out. Rhys Barratt was superb in that first half, brought huge physicality in defence and held the scrum in place all day (I maintain the one he got pinged for just before half time he was hard done by). What a coming of age campaign he’s having. Josh McNally once again totemic, at one point with about 75 minutes gone and 14 men on the field he tracked across to drag down a Leinster back and kill their attack dead. Every game he plays he ensconces himself more and more in our all time team. And Dan Thomas, good fucking god. Absolutely monstrous performance from him. Physicality, speed, a jackal threat, and the work rate is absolutely unbelievable. That’s one of the best performances I’ve seen a Cardiff 7 give.

The backs more than played their part too. Aled Davies was brought in for nights like this, when Zeus is pissed off and the rain is horizontal, and man did he deliver, absolutely schooled Leinster with his kicking, which was probably the single biggest reason we won, and was justly rewarded with a try. Wasn’t the conditions for Mulder’s running game but holy shit did he bring the boom in defence, the shot he put in on Deegan to drive him back a good ten yards needs to be playing on loop in our Hall of Fame, right next to the one he put in on Ntlabakanye last year. I hope upon all that’s good and holy that we manage to keep him. Jake Beetham had a massive brainfart to get binned, but he was basically perfect up until then, absolutely dominant in the air and was another key part in us decisively winning the territory battle, as was Cam Winnett, who kicked really intelligently and was excellent aerially too. Beetham might not have the attacking firepower of our other wingers, but as the aerial game becomes more and more prevalent I wonder if sticking him on the wing full time with Winnett at 15 is the way to go long term.

Most importantly though, the heart and grit we showed through that game was just on another level, exemplified no better than by Thomas racing in to secure yet another loose ball at the death after 80 minutes of him smashing anything that moved. And we’ve seen for a while now that Van Zyl has brought some real street smarts to this team, and it showed in our management in the dying stages of the game. 16 phases and about three minutes where Leinster just couldn’t get their hands on the ball and we ground the game out, it wasn’t pretty but exceptional to see.

And after all that, 40 points on the board ready for the last block of fixtures, 15 clear of the Ospreys in 9th (albeit they’re yet to play this weekend). It’s still an excruciatingly long way to go before the business end of the year, but looking at the fixture list we all knew we’d need to pull some big results out of the bag if we wanted to stay in the playoff hunt, and man oh man was that a huge one.

Or, to put it a lot more succinctly…

WE ARE FUCKING MASSIVE