Gloucester 42-15 Cardiff: Blue and Blacks blown away in ruthless first half as pre-season begins with defeat

Cardiff were thumped 42-15 by a clinical Gloucester side in their opening pre-season fixture of 2022.

The hosts wrote the script inside the first six minutes and simply repeated the movie four times throughout the rest of the opening 40. Hooker Jack Singleton got things going when he broke away from a solid driving maul to power through Ellis Bevan and Aled Summerhill and score the first try.

Cardiff, missing their eight Wales internationals who toured South Africa this summer, were stubborn for the next 20 minutes or so but more indiscipline gave the hosts easy access to the 22. This time it was skipper Ruan Ackermann who was the beneficiary of a good driving maul.

Gloucester were in again on the half hour mark when No.8 Ben Morgan was at the back of a driving maul that looked destined for the line from the moment it was set up.

Three minutes later, James Botham was shown a yellow card for shoulder charging into a maul and Morgan scored again, breaking away from a driving maul to dive over virtually unopposed.

Cardiff had their chances throughout the first 40, enjoying some good spells of pressure between Gloucester’s first and second try. In all, they had four visits to the Cherry and Whites’ 22 but came away with no points, while their hosts were ruthless as they led 28-0 at the break.

Cardiff enjoyed a good spell at the start of the second period and went through a number of phases as they worked their way deep into Gloucester’s 22 through a strong carry from Seb Davies. But just when the hosts appeared to be short of numbers, Jarrod Evans’ pass was intercepted by winger Jack Reeves, who raced 80 metres to dive under the posts.

Travelling fans were given something to cheer about shortly after, though, when a high