Cardiff 8-7 Leinster: The Blue Blacks Record Marvellous Victory- Five Players Who Impressed 

Aled Davies scored his first try of the season, which was accompanied by three points from the boot of Callum Sheedy, as the Blue and Blacks handed the Irish province just their fourth loss of the season.

Corniel van Zyl's side were boosted with the returns of Welsh internationals Ben Thomas, Mason Grady, and Liam Belcher, who were all released from the Welsh camp on Monday.

Inside centre, Thomas, who has not had the best of times of late on the international stage, accompanied Harri Millard in the centres as they faced off against Reiko Ioane and Robbie Henshaw. But it wasn’t the New Zealand international or the British and Irish player who started the stronger on a night where points came at a premium.

After an expected stop-start opening, due to the horrid wet conditions that drenched the Welsh capital, Sheedy slotted the opening points of the contest. This proved to be the only points of the first half, following Sheedy opting for the corner instead of the rare opportunity at scoring points.

Prior to the interval, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen made sweeping changes. Gus McCarthy, Alex Usanov, and Rabah Slimani made it a fresh new front row, with South African RG Snyman also coming on in place of Alan Spicer.

With the rain easing as the second half got underway in this sort of enthralling contest, which proved to be more of an endurance test for the 7,571 in attendance

The game came to light on the 54-minute mark, as scrum-half Davies crossed over. This came after a brilliant break upfield down the touchline from standout, Grady, who offloaded back inside for Dan Thomas to continue on the front foot, before eventually offloading to the 33-year-old to score.

Jacob Beetham, minutes later, was shown a yellow card, as Leinster quietly started to grow into the encounter. With the extra-man advantage, replacement Luke McGrath raced over for the visitors' first with Charlie Tector adding the extras to make it a one-point game heading into the final 10 minutes.

That lead was sustained in what was a hard-fought final few minutes, as Cardiff now has two months away from the Welsh capital, with two encounters in South Africa followed by facing Benetton in Treviso in the knockout stages of the EPCR Challenge Cup.

Needed to kick well, and did. Kicked a notable 50/22, which put his side on the front foot at the end of the first quarter. On an evening with slippery conditions due to the torrential downpours, the 30-year-old at times orchestrated his side's attack well.

Looked dangerous with the ball in hand and under the high ball, but with conditions not favourable for running rugby, he still got himself over the gain line. Made a much-needed tackle on Joshua Kenny, which capped off a decent outing for the big ball-carrying winger.

Worked tirelessly around the damp artificial turf, and he was one of his side’s standouts in defence. Incredible work rate, constantly pressuring the visitors when in attack, an absolute nuisance at times. He did fumble possession near the tryline, but apart from that, he was the hosts’ standout.

On a tough night for handling possession, Davies expertly kept his side’s tempo of their attack up extremely well. Was the Blue and Blacks’ only try scorer, after crossing over for his first try for the club.

The former Dragons player was a great asset to his side around the breakdown area, disrupting the visitors' attack extremely well. An all-round dominant performance, and worked well in tandem alongside both Thomas and Alun Lawrence. What a back-row trio that is.