Despite ultimately falling to defeat against the reigning champions, Gruff Rees believes Saturday’s clash against Toulouse will live long in the memory for those in attendance at the Arms Park.
A spirited performance from the hosts gave the lively Arms Park crowd plenty to cheer about, but World Player of the Year, Antoine Dupont, inspired the five-time champions to victory.
Rees believes the home side’s performance and intent gave the supporters plenty to shout about as they went toe-to-toe with the Top 14 giants.
“There were fantastic Arms Park memories out there and some brilliant moments in the game,” explained the academy manager.
“As a coaching team we probably think that we left a few tries out there, but over-riding that is the individual moments.
“Rowan Jenkins coming off the field to a standing ovation, the same for Jacob Beetham after receiving his red card which was a surreal moment.
“There was also the ‘Feed the Fish’ chants when he came back on the field.
“There were so many moments to embrace about the day.
“Yes, we’re involved in high performance rugby but there is also a bit of a corinthian spirit about what we’ve done here today.
“The crowd were brilliant, and that resonated before-hand with the group, as Ellis spoke about.
“We referred to that and had so many quality moments and it’s fantastic that people came out for a lunchtime kick off to pack the Arms Park.
“Especially for myself, watching games down here on a regular basis, it was a sight to behold.
“The first 20 was obviously big for us. We set a mindset, both with and without the ball, that we wanted to set a tempo.
“You had Tomos on the tap-and-go, we were playing to the edges and defensively we were getting off the line and doing stuff that we are good at anyway as a Cardiff team.
“We hung in there in the set-piece and we knew that would be a challenge.
“It was great to have a mutual support from everyone for a group of boys that have barley trained together, let alone play.
“It was a great effort all round.”
Cardiff saw hooker Iestyn Harris and outside half Jason Tovey depart in the second half, but Rees admits the club will work hard to ensure they will be able to take the field against Harlequins next week.
“It is the challenge but it will come back to conversations with Dai around in terms of where we’re at with manpower," added Rees.
“We lost a hooker out there and a potential HIA as well, so that will challenge us.
“But that’s nothing different to what we’ve lived in over the last couple of weeks, being on the phone constantly.
“We’ll look at the registrations we’ve got and how best we can put a squad together.”