Cardiff Supporters' Trust have slammed their side's "shameful" displays after the Arms Park side capitulated during a derby day thrashing from the Scarlets on the weekend.
A strongly-worded opinion piece called Cardiff's recent displays an "insult" and "appalling" as they questioned how things had reached this point, as the Blue and Blacks squandered a 14-point lead to concede 49 unanswered points against the west Walians. Despite the odd high point, such as home victories over Leinster and Glasgow, such defeats have become a worrying trend as Cardiff have failed to win away from home once and have conceded an average of 30.8 points per game.
Of course, the disruption caused by their disastrous trip to South Africa before Christmas, which resulted in most of the squad being forced into isolation, hasn't helped matters. But this article from the supporters' group CF10 Rugby Trust suggests that recent performances will only add to the growing sense of apathy.
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"On Saturday, despite recent performances, the Arms Park was packed, perhaps more out of hope than expectation," the piece read. "After the game, not many of the paying public will have still felt proud to associate themselves with the club.
"It will be very difficult to persuade many to return if we continue to be served up appalling, shameful displays like the one we witnessed on the weekend. Asking people to continue handing over money for performances like that is an insult."
What made the performance against the Scarlets on the weekend all the more disappointing was that coach Dai Young had publicly called out his squad for underperforming recently. It's evident that not everyone is on board and the fact that players were given an extra year on their contracts due to the pay cuts they took during the Covid-19 pandemic, along with uncertainty over budgets, means Young's hands are tied when it comes to changing his squad over the summer.
“They know they’ve got an opportunity to show that they’re good enough," said Young last week. "At the end of the day it’s pretty simple, you work hard to try to change mindsets and convince people but there comes a time where if you can’t influence mindsets and if you can’t bring change, then you have to change them [players].”
The end result of all of that, and Cardiff's failure to respond to the public warning from Young, means that there's uncertainty with how Cardiff move forward into next season. Besides a couple of high-profile additions, the squad will remain largely unchanged - which is something that clearly worries supporters.
The article goes on to ask what it believes are three crucial questions.
"Why precisely were contract extensions agreed to and were all other options explored? Why weren’t all clubs forced into this policy?
"What can now be done about this?"
Suggesting that many players in this squad are too comfortable in their current positions, the piece harks back to the optimism that was built from the "misfit" squad comprised of academy products and club players that took on Toulouse and Harlequins. Even in unique circumstances, the fans responded to the commitment shown by the side.
"Ultimately, professional sports teams need to be run for the fans. They need to be a source of pride for the people of the city they’re based in and beyond. People should be proud to associate themselves with the club. Running a professional sports club for any other purpose will not end well.
"The second or third choice player in his fourth year as a professional may feel that he’s part of the furniture and enjoy coming to work every day. But he is nowhere near as important as the guy who began supporting the club twenty years ago and is now bringing his son and daughter along.
"The 70 year old who has stood on the terraces since he was a child, through good and bad years is far more important than any superstar on an elite 38 deal. The assistant coaches who have worked their way up the ladder for years may feel they’ve earned their lot the hard way, but far more important are the groups of friends who have been going to matches for years and always try persuading other friends to come along with them.
"Those are the people who put their hands in their pockets and who really do bleed blue and black when you cut them. The club has to be about making those people proud. Not about keeping under performing players and staff in jobs.
"When the club makes those people proud, the terraces will be full, the jerseys will be sold and the rest will fall into place."
