OSPREYS: Bowen double and Adams try as Cardiff hold the Ospreys scoreless at St Helen’s

Cardiff ran in four tries to beat the Ospreys 26-0 at St Helen’s. It was the first time the Ospreys had failed to score since a 23-0 defeat to Munster in October 2024.

Wing Tom Bowen scored twice, and Josh Adams and 18-year-old replacement hooker Tom Howe also crossed as Cardiff took a bonus point in a scrappy, stop-start derby, in front of 5,592, the full temporary capacity at St Helen’s while the rebuild continues.

It was a sobering night, a week after the Ospreys christened the rebuilt ground with a bonus-point win over the Dragons.

Lawson Creighton pulls out as Cardiff loanee Harri Wilde starts

Neither side was at full strength, with 10 Wales internationals between them stood down ahead of the Nations Championship.

The Ospreys were without Tom Rogers, Dan Edwards, Reuben Morgan-Williams and Gareth Thomas, and Mark Jones made six changes.

Fly-half Lawson Creighton then pulled out with a groin injury. Harri Wilde, on loan from Cardiff, started against his parent club, alongside Luke Davies at scrum-half.

Both sides came in with two wins and two defeats from their first four URC games.

Tom Bowen double as Steffan Emanuel runs the show

Cardiff had all the early pressure, and teenage centre Steffan Emanuel cut through to set up Bowen for the opening try.

The Ospreys thought they had hit back when prop Steffan Thomas was driven over. But the TMO ruled that Cardiff scrum-half Johan Mulder had stopped him grounding the ball.

Bowen then used his pace to finish a well-worked scrum move for his second. Emanuel almost made a third with a break and kick, but the Ospreys scrambled back.

On the half-hour, Emanuel’s perfectly weighted kick put Wales wing Josh Adams over in the corner.

Flanker Ross Moriarty then went off injured and was replaced by Morgan Morse, and Cardiff led 19-0 at the break.

Sam Parry held up as the Ospreys dominate the second half

The Ospreys had almost all of the ball and territory after the restart. But Cardiff held co-captain Sam Parry up over the line and disrupted maul after maul.

Cardiff were warned for persistent penalties, and you could hear the Ospreys players’ frustration at how referee Ben Breakspear was handling the breakdown.

Instead it was Cardiff who scored next, with Howe driven over for the bonus-point try.

There was one bright spot for the Ospreys. Steffan Jac Jones, a 20-year-old Wales Under-20 fly-half, came off the bench for his debut in the second half.

Emanuel had the last word, with a superb covering tackle to deny Keelan Giles in the dying seconds.

Ospreys ninth as the URC breaks for five weeks

The URC now stops for five weeks for the Nations Championship. The Ospreys finish the first block ninth, with Cardiff seventh.

Ospreys team v Cardiff

Ospreys: 15 Iestyn Hopkins; 14 Luke Morgan, 13 Owen Watkin (co-capt), 12 Keiran Williams, 11 Keelan Giles; 10 Harri Wilde, 9 Luke Davies; 1 Steffan Thomas, 2 Sam Parry (co-capt), 3 Tom Botha, 4 James Ratti, 5 Ryan Smith, 6 Liam Wright, 7 Ross Moriarty, 8 Morgan Morris.

Replacements: 16 Efan Daniel, 17 Cam Jones, 18 Ben Warren, 19 Hugh Sutton, 20 Morgan Morse, 21 Harri Williams, 22 Steffan Jac Jones, 23 Evardi Boshoff.