Cardiff Blues vs. London Irish - Heineken Cup Pool 2 Match Discussion

First topic message reminder :

This weekends Heineken Cup action kicks off on Friday night with Cardiff Blues vs. London Irish at the Cardiff City Stadium. After round one Cardiff sit atop the pool after an excellent away win in Paris, with London Irish third after a disappointing home defeat to Edinburgh.

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Cardiff Blues

Squad
Scott Andrews, Marc Breeze, James Corsi, Alex Cuthbert, Chris Czekaj, Bradley Davies, James Down, Gavin Evans, Tau Filise, Leigh Halfpenny, Luke Hamilton, Ryan Harford, Gavin Henson, Dafyyd Hewitt, Sam Hobbs, Tom James, Gethin Jenkins, Deiniol Jones, Lewis Jones, Casey Laulala, Ma'ama Molitika, Richard Mustoe, Dan Parks, Michael Paterson, Andries Pretorius, Richie Rees, Jamie Roberts, Xavier Rush, Ceri Sweeney, T.Rhys Thomas, Paul Tito, Nathan Trevett, Ryan Tyrell, Sam Warburton, Lloyd Williams, Martyn Williams, Rhys Williams, John Yapp.

Last Time Out
The Blues began this campaign with an excellent away win in Paris in round one. That result does appear to have come at a cost, with star centre Jamie Roberts possibly unavailable for this game due to injury. The Blues however will take great confidence from their showing in round one and will know that a home win this time out will put them in a very strong position in the pool.

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London Irish

Squad
Darren Allinson, Joe Ansbro, Delon Armitage, Brian Blaney, Dan Bowden, James Buckland, Bob Casey, Alex Corbisiero, Declan Danaher, Clarke Dermody, Bryn Evans, Matt Garvey, Mark George, Jamie Gibson, Alex Gray, Chris Hala'ufia, Leo Halavatau, Shontayne Hape, Paul Hodgson, Tom Homer, Paulica Ion, Adrian Jarvis, Jonathan Joseph, Nick Kennedy, Max Lahiff, Topsy Ojo, David Paice, Faan Rautenbach, Ross Samson, James Sandford, Steven Shingler, Ed Siggery, Jebb Sinclair, David Sisi, Jonathan Spratt, Sailosi Tagicakibau, Adam Thompstone, Richard Thorpe.

Last Time Out
Irish managed to lose a 19-10 lead to be beaten by a point at home to Edinburgh in round one, and in reality it could have been a bigger margin with Tim Visser harshly being disallowed a try by the TMO. Shontayne Hape has also been cited for a tackle on David Denton and with his hearing on Thursday Irish could well lose their first choice 12 for this one as well, which given that it is a must win game for them may prove to be a fatal blow to their chances in the pool.

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Summary

On paper this game is Cardiff Blues' to lose. Although they are missing one or two players through injury, Irish are missing almost an entire back division and do not have the same strength in depth as the Blues. Up front the Irish pack will need to perform with a lot more intensity at the tackle area than they did last time out if they are to live with a Blues pack containing Welsh World Cup stars Gethin Jenkins, Bradley Davies and Sam Warburton.

If any Blues fans have any team/injury news please post here and I will do the same for Irish.

How do people see this one going?

Cardiff would be mental to change their coaches now.

London Irish getting schooled early on to be frank.

Have to say I find the commentators comments that Nick Kennedy is the best lineout operator in European rugby rather ridiculous.

I dont think they will change their coaches - the player seem to be happy and there a good atmosphere - they need to sack most of their board though...

Wait till Henson starts.

Harmony gone.
Spirit gone.
Controversy begins.

Henson leaves.

Blues form dips.

Oh, so unlucky by Cuthbert

BEAUTIFUL interchange between T.James, Czekaj and Cuthbert - that back 3 are in deadly form.

Dan Parks looks like he is going to have another good game for the Blues - I have know idea how, but he has finally adapted to our backline - I hope it continues and Henson is left to warm the bench.

Warburton all over the ball. Penalty Blues

IT'S HAPPENED AGAIN!!

How did he get up from that LOL he crushed his neck!

Bad tackle, but poor Shingler.

Red Card for a tip tackle against Shingler.

London Irish down to 14.

RED CARD FOR LONDON IRISH - STEVE SHINGLER

TIP TACKLE - looks nasty

Game over for Irish - Blues should go for a TBP really.

Rush has gone off - another injury :/

Blues have fallen off the intensity a bit, need to pick it up

LI have a chance for 3pts.

Blues opportunities - 3
Blues tries - 1

Need to sort it out.

Make that 4 opportunities if they had kept that in the forwards.

13 - 3

Laulaula making stupid passes

Stupid offside by Warburton

Blues need to concentrate, really need to go back to what they were doing earlier.

Blues 13 - 9 Irish

Brilliant individual try from L.Williams

18 - 9

Conversion to come

Almost 1/2 time.

Great try by Williams just saw highlights

That try pretty much seals it after the Blues went off the boil post sending off. Fatigue will come in to play and can see a bonus point coming. Scarlets match just as good.

Chekaj should definitely go off, no mo that bad should be on the pitch

scoi wrote:That try pretty much seals it after the Blues went off the boil post sending off. Fatigue will come in to play and can see a bonus point coming. Scarlets match just as good.

Chekaj should definitely go off, no mo that bad should be on the pitch

??? - Czekaj has been brilliant - excellent kicking and great chasing

he's playing better than he has all season and this is his best season in years, bu that face fluff, he better be getting a lot of sponsorship

Cuthbert should have scored that - mistimed sidestep, Homer did well though

Blues wasting opportunities

ANOTHER wasted opportunity.., 2 tries from about 8 chances.

If the Blues dont get a TBP, and this pool goes down to BPs then they should punch themselves

Forward pass - ANOTHER wasted opportunity. Jeses

Well this in incomparably better than the Scarlets-Saints stream.

The Blues are very frustrating to watch at the moment.

Laulaula and L.Willams off - Not going to help our backs.

Laulala seemed to have been trying to force the tries, Williams i really dont understand

What ARE they doing??!!

Rush goes off, we lose all motivation

Cardiff 21 - 15 Irish!!!

WITH 14 MEN!

Very poor by the Blues atm, the curse of playing 14 men stands strong. Composure needed now

Blues seem to hate playing 14 men

Based on the first 10 minutes it should have been comfortable, but as soon as they go down to 14, we give up

It's the urgency added to the reduced side knowing they have to compensate for the missing man and the extra expectation on the stronger side knowing logically they ought to crush 14 men. Silly but that's the cause of games like this!

Blues need to stay cool and play like they were playing 15 for the remaining 6 mins.

If LI get a LBP then the Blues players should be given a right b*llocking

Another nervy 6pt win which we could have thrown away in the last minutes.

The difference being, last week was a superb display, this week was abysmal.

unlucky Irish! after the first twenty minutes that was a magnificent effort to stick with Cardiff for the whole game, and a losing BP was the very least they deserved. The Blues need to seriously sort their scrum out for starters, it was butchered today, even that last one where Irish went in with only 7 men.

Good win for blues but London Irish will have to be very happy with a losing bonus point

Blues must be diappointed not to have secured a bigger win. Head to heads with Edinburgh will be interesting.

Just watching the game now..

Blues really need to get rid of parks

maestegmafia wrote:Just watching the game now..

Blues really need to get rid of parks

Agree, but today, Parks wasnt the problem

Actually, he had his 2nd best game for the Blues, after last week.

The whole strategy and energy from the players was wrong.

Shingler was silly.

But at least the French ref was consistent.

Blues look the better team, parks kicks all the wrong ball. No faith in his back line.

They need to get a guy who an play ten

thought Parks did ok today, kicked the corners very well, and distribution was ok too. No complaints about the ref from me as an Irish fan, he rewarded our dominance at the scrum which was right, and rewarded the Blues for their dominance at the breakdown, which was right too. Shingler had to go, don't think there was the intent to hurt the guy, but he lost control of the tackle and tipped him, so no problems with that call. Thought he got the game flowing pretty nicely, no incessant whistle blowing, played advantage well, etc. One thing he let go were quite a few offsides in the backline, esp. for Irish but a few for the Blues as well. Still, he was consistent in that so fine for me.

Blues deserved their win as they created more, but having had the perfect platform twenty minutes in should really have won far more comfortably. As such, even if our European hopes are pretty much over I'm very happy with the fight Irish showed for the last hour. Corbs contiues to impress, and must be a shoe-in for the England LH berth surely, while Homer had another mightily impressive game at the back. The one kick he missed was a monster, and unluckily just short, but he kicked everything else, was secure under the high ball and made some fine tackles too.

I'm sorry but watched the game live and the Irish lived off side - there were a few times when the ball was passed out and the L Irish player was so far offside that he arrived almost at the same time as the ball - and the ref did nothing.

It was one of the reasons (among many) that the Blues couldn't get their attack started, as everytime someone had the ball and offside L Irish player would be right on top of them.

Also thought that the Shingler tackle was horrendous, there was no need to lift him as he hit him hard enough but was driving him back and that would have been fine, instead he twisted drove him up, up-ended him put him on his neck drove his body vertical (with his neck as the pivot on the ground) and then let him go. Shocking

and Cardiff lived off their feet and falling on the wrong side of the ruck ... and the tip tackle wasn't nearly as bad as it probably looked live and at full speed to be honest ... I don't believe for one minute Shingler was trying to injure anyone ... and the Cardiff player didn't even drop the ball but instead got up with it and carried on running ....

I saw it live and on the Big Screen replay and it was that bad - it was shocking. and I thought the ruck was a mess with both sides at fault - but the offsides really had a big effect on the game

I saw it at full speed, in slow mo and in slow mo of the slow mo so I think we will have to agree to differ on the tackle ... Pat Sanderson on the commentary also felt the Cardiff player twisted and tried to take himself to ground to present the ball ... not saying the tackle was right - but not as bad as some people might think and not deliberate by Shingler ... Also still think Cardiff got away with a lot more at the rucks and surely Irish not being able to keep hold of their own ball or challenge for Cardiff's has to have had a big effect also?

Heaf wrote:I saw it at full speed, in slow mo and in slow mo of the slow mo so I think we will have to agree to differ on the tackle ... Pat Sanderson on the commentary also felt the Cardiff player twisted and tried to take himself to ground to present the ball ... not saying the tackle was right - but not as bad as some people might think and not deliberate by Shingler ... Also still think Cardiff got away with a lot more at the rucks and surely Irish not being able to keep hold of their own ball or challenge for Cardiff's has to have had a big effect also?

It was a clear Red though, the ref had no choice - penalty is not based on intention, neither is disciplinary action I believe.

sure it was a red, and I'd imagine he'd get about five weeks or so, maybe more, but I agree with Heaf's (and Sanderson's) analysis. He didn't drive him into the ground, he was trying to drive him backwards but lost control of the tackle. Middle-range offense for me.

As for the ref, the Blues were offside after most rucks too, but because they don't do the rush defense it was less obvious. They were always creeping a yard or two over the line. Also, they are ways to beat the rush defense, esp. if they're a man short. Get people running the short ball into the gaps, throw the cut-ut passes attacking from deep, cross-field kicks, etc. The fact the Blues didn't do this does indeed suggest the stratedy was wrong as wales 606 said earlier.

That said, the Blues deserved to win, but Irish certainly deserved a BP for their efforts.

Agree, the LI defence was very good and the Blues looked a bit clueless in phase play, up and unders were working well (Paterson is really coming into his own recently) but thats about it.

We squandered SOOOO many opportunities it was ridiculous, if we had lost it at the end it would have been a disastrous performance.

As it is, we are still in the competition, but will have to raise our game to face Edinburgh - and raise it further if we reach the K/O stages.

Week two of sloppy play from the Blues and a scrum getting mulloured for most of the game, surely areas for concern?

Didn't think the tackle on Hewitt was too bad, he twisted and made it look worse. Felt sorry for Shingler and I think everyone would have settled for a yellow at the most.