Can Cardiff end eight-year wait for Welsh play-off win?

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

• Published2 hours ago

Cardiff will attempt to end an eight-year wait for Welsh success in play-offs by causing a United Rugby Championship (URC) upset at Stormers on Saturday (14:30 BST).

The Blue and Blacks earned a spot in the quarter-finals by beating the South Africans in their final game of the regular season.

Their reward is a trip to Cape Town to face a Stormers side fuelled by revenge after a costly Arms Park defeat that dropped them to third in the table.

It is a fixture between two sides with contrasting expectations.

Cardiff have ticked off a big target by just qualifying for the play-offs while their hosts won the title in 2022, were runners-up the following year and have lost quarter-finals in Glasgow for the last two seasons.

Stormers v Cardiff

URC play-off quarter-final

Saturday, 30 May at 14:30 BST

Listen on Radio Wales and online with live text on BBC Sport app & website

Welsh battle to make top eight

The introduction of the South African quartet of Stormers, Bulls, Lions and Sharks led to a change of format for the URC in the 2021-22 season, which was previously the Pro14, Pro12 and Celtic League.

Cardiff have become only the third Welsh side to make the play-offs in five seasons, and there is yet to be a URC quarter-final success.

In 2025 Scarlets pipped the Blue and Blacks to eighth place by a point and travelled to Dublin where they were beaten 33-21 by Leinster.

The previous season, Ospreys extended their season by just one more fixture and also lost in Ireland, going down 23-7 at top seeds Munster.

Cardiff and South Africa's Lions have qualified for the URC quarter-finals for the first time, meaning that 14 of the 16 sides have made it to that stage since they were introduced.

Only Zebre and Dragons have never made the top eight while Glasgow, Leinster, Stormers, Bulls and Munster have qualified in every season.

Happier times

Image source, Huw Evans Picture Agency

With Welsh sides frequently impacted by off-field turmoil and going up against teams with bigger budgets and deeper squads, reaching the play-offs is now an achievement.

The size of the gap is emphasised by Stormers strengthening even more for next season by signing up Springboks Cheslin Kolbe, Siya Kolisi and Wilco Louw.

It was not always this way.

The previous time that a Welsh side won in the play-offs was in 2018 when Scarlets, fresh from a quarter-final rout of Cheetahs, beat Glasgow in a Scotstoun Stadium semi-final.

The Llanelli-based side were beaten 40-32 by Leinster in the Grand Final at the Aviva Stadium, where 12 months earlier Wayne Pivac's men had upset the odds.

Scarlets were the last Welsh champions in 2017 when they lifted the Pro14 trophy by beating Leinster 27-15 in the semis and then thumping Munster 46-22.

Ospreys were the first team to win the Celtic League under a play-off system.

They won the first Grand Final in 2010 when beating Leinster 17-12 at the Royal Dublin Society, that after easing past Glasgow in the semi-finals.

Arguably Ospreys' most famous moment came at the same venue two years later when Dan Biggar famously converted Shane Williams' try in the closing stages to stun Leinster 31-30 and seal a fourth title.

• No excuses for Cardiff with South Africa trip

  • Published4 days ago

• Wales scrum-half Williams to retire at end of season

  • Published6 days ago

• Cardiff provide special night Welsh rugby needed

  • Published16 May

Cardiff's first foray

The Blue and Blacks, twice runners-up in the Celtic League before the introduction of play-offs, are in new territory.

The club have enjoyed knockout success when winning the Challenge Cup in 2010 and 2018, while they also lifted the 2009 Anglo-Welsh Cup.

This is a first taste of URC play-off pressure and they face a Stormers side who have been knocked out in the quarter-finals for the past two seasons, although both losses were on their travels to Glasgow.

Cardiff's fine form on their plastic pitch at the Arms Park – eight wins from nine games in the URC – earned qualification, but they now travel to one of the league's toughest venues.

John Dobson's side have lost just eight home league fixtures over five seasons, although Connacht provided reason to believe when they upset the odds in round 15.

"The younger guys had no fear, they just ripped into it," said head coach Stuart Lancaster, who was without Bundee Aki, Finlay Bealham, Mack Hansen and Denis Buckley.

Ospreys also won 27-21 in Cape Town in April 2024, but Stormers have won five of six home play-off games, with the only disappointment coming against Munster in the 2023 Grand Final.

So, arguably Cardiff are bigger underdogs at DHL Stadium than Lions at Leinster, Munster at Bulls or Connacht at Glasgow this weekend.

Related topics

• Cardiff
• Welsh Rugby
• Rugby Union