With Judgement Day on the horizon we take a trip down memory lane to look at the story behind this iconic image when the Ospreys beat the Blues during a Judgement Day fixture three years ago.
The Ospreys ran in six tries to secure a crucial Judgement Day win over the Blues on the final day of April 2016.
Not only was it a third consecutive bonus point win for the region, but after a game which saw the lead change hands seven times, and despite trailing on four separate occasions, the Ospreys had enough to come through late on and secure a 10th straight win over the capital region.
Rhys Webb and Hanno Dirksen both scored two tries each while man of the match, James King, and Sam Underhill also touched down as they outscored the Blues by six tries to two.
Despite the Ospreys enjoying most of the possession and territory in the opening exchanges, albeit without threatening the opposition’s line, it was the Blues who got the first points of the day as Gareth Anscombe slotted a penalty after Rhys Webb was penalised for not rolling away.
After several attempts to threaten the Blue’s line, but being guilty of losing possession every time they got close to the 22, the first try eventually came from the Ospreys with 25-minutes on the clock. King picked up at the back of the scrum, and going through a huge gap in the Blues defence, he shrugged off the efforts of Josh Navidi to score, converted by Biggar, to edge the Ospreys into the lead.
The Blues came straight back at the Ospreys as a penalty against Dmitri Arhip at a ruck gave Anscombe another shot at goal and he made no mistake, bringing the Blues back to within a point after half an hour.
With 37-minutes on the clock, Anscombe made it three from three to put his team back in front as the half-time whistle approached. This took the score to 9-7 as both teams left the field for the break.
As the second-half got underway, the Blues were straight on the attack as Aled Summerhill grabbed the first Blues try within two minutes, Anscombe sending a long pass out wide to give Summerhill a simple run-in, which went unconverted.
The Blues’ lead was further extended as after a scrum penalty, Anscombe found the posts to secure the three points.
Undeterred, the Ospreys dug in deep and this was shortly followed by another Ospreys try as a much better scrum had the Blues in trouble on their line, and a wonderful through the legs pass from Rynier Bernado sent Dirksen over in the corner, the try going unconverted.
Dirksen quickly made it a double, as just five-minutes later he was crossing the whitewash again as the Ospreys snatched the lead. Owen Watkin was the initial catalyst, pouncing on a loose ball inside his own half, carrying to the Blues 10m line. There appeared little danger when Webb sent a little dink towards the corner, but the bounce beat Isaacs and great chasing from Watkin saw him snaffle the ball before his quick offload allowed Dirksen to finish it off, converted by Biggar.
With little than 15-minutes to play, the lead changed hands once again as Josh Navidi broke through from 25-metres to score, shrugging off the tackles of Bernardo and Evans, successfully converted by Anscombe to take the Blues to a 24-19 lead.
The 70th minute saw the game take another dramatic turn when Underhill powered over from just three-metres out, taking Webb’s short pass and carrying Kristian Dacey across the line with him, Biggar with the extras.
Two minutes later, Anscombe was quick to capitalise on Parry’s infringement by putting the Blues back in front on the scoreboard with a score of 27-26.
With both sides emptying their benches the Ospreys piled on the pressure in the closing stages and, incredibly, they were able to secure the win and deny the Blues even a losing bonus point as Webb twice sniped over from close range in the dying minutes, Biggar adding the extras both times to round off a big win obtained in dramatic fashion.
FINAL SCORE: CARDIFF BLUES 27-40 OSPREYS