Cardiff Blues v Scarlets

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Cardiff Blues
15. Ben Blair 14. Alex Cuthbert 13. Casey Laulala 12. Dafydd Hewitt 11. Tom James 10. Dan Parks 9. Lloyd Williams

8. Xavier Rush (c) 7. Josh Navidi 6. Michael Paterson 5. James Down 4. Macualey Cook 3. Scott Andrews 2. Ryan Tyrell 1. John Yapp

16. Marc Breeze 17. Nathan Trevett 18. Sam Hobbs 19. Cory Hill 20. Maama Molitika 21. Richie Rees 22. Ceri Sweeney 23. Chris Czekaj


Scarlets Team: 15 Liam Williams, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Gareth Maule (capt), 12 Scott Williams, 11 Andy Fenby, 10 Stephen Jones, 9 Gareth Davies, 1 Rhodri Jones, 2 Ken Owens, 3 Deacon Manu, 4 Dominic Day, 5 Damian Welch, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 Johnathan Edwards, 8 Ben Morgan.

Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Phil John, 18 Peter Edwards, 19 Sione Timani, 20 Kieran Murphy, 21 Liam Davies, 22 Aled Thomas, 23 Jon Davies.


A strong Blues backline, matched by the Scarlets, but I think the Scarlets for once have the stronger pack, plus I think we have the stronger bench.

Really chuffed so many of the international players (for the Scarlets at least) are back either starting or on the bench. Just hope the likes of Monty and Ben aren't too rusty slotting back in.

Going to be a close game, but think that the Scarlets should win it. I really hope so anyways!

How do you guys see the game going?

Blues try to run it out of their won half - turn over

Try for Davies

Blues mistakes 19 - 7 Scarlets mistakes

Awful awful awful

Rush has been poor in this game, cost a try for not passing and going into contact.

Sweeney makes a break - but now its into phase play, so no try.

Baber - when Sweeney can do that - why do you start with Parks?

good question

Shocking defence

Great angle Laulala. Sweeney pops this over - game back on.

I retract my game set match assertion.

Moment of brilliance by Laulaula

12 - 19 conversion to come

Phase play is dreadful, until Laulaula gets bored of passing

A draw would be a fair result in this game

14 - 19

Game on

North the beast set to come on.

Rush's headguard has leached out his magical powers

Penalty Scarlets

Morgannwg wrote:North the beast set to come on.

North vs Cuthbert

Thought I put £1 on Cuthbert and £1 on Laulaula to score or the Blues

Turns out I selected Tom James instead of Cuthbert by accident

There's still time - keep the faith. (they haven't subbed James yet have they?)

Great try

Excellent North and Scarlets. Bonus point win.

North slips out of Cuthberts tackle

Game Scarlets

TBP Scarlets

North 1 - 0 Cuthbert

1-0 North.

North you are my hero. Amazing.

5 pointer for Scarlets.

They're singing again - but I'm suspicious that's just a Turk contingent.

EDIT - they're now singing Sosban Fach - which answers above point/question.

Not a bad game IMO. Both teams were playing possitive rugby throughout. OVereagerness at times has lead to some mistakes. Taking into conisderation other results how significant is this for the Scarlets and how bad for the BLues?

To round up

Blues forwards, 0
Blues backs, - 12

Well done scarlets well deserved, the last try sealed the victory

I was either going to this game or Tonmawr Vs Bridgend today, I'm still glad I went to Tonmawr, seeing that Bridgend center slice through the Tonmawr defense and run over the dead ball line by mistake was comedy gold, far better than whats being served up here tonight.

The final score was Tonmawr 20 - 60 Bridgend!

Besides I was in the sun all afternoon as well!

Leinster will be laughing

Good second half. Some mistakes - but some nice vision - once Parks went off.

Blues afficionados - is Blair still with you for the coming season? I thought I read that he's off - but I might be imagining things...

If the blues pick the same starting team against Leinster in the 1/4 final they have no chance, the Irish are weak in the srum but the blues are worse.

glamorganalun wrote:If the blues pick the same starting team against Leinster in the 1/4 final they have no chance, the Irish are weak in the srum but the blues are worse.

I agree the Ospreys have a great pack, but poor backs and the Blues are the other way around.

as a neutral the scarlets are a pleasure to watch, north is a beast!

blues are in turmoil, half their squad seem to be off, theres the CAP/CCS issue and the fact they out of all the regions seem to do the least to embrace their entire region

they are going to miss laulala next season big time....fourth welsh region next year?

I hope the scarlets get to 4th in the table to take on Leinster, I fancy the Scarlets chances.

GavinDragon wrote:as a neutral the scarlets are a pleasure to watch, north is a beast!

blues are in turmoil, half their squad seem to be off, theres the CAP/CCS issue and the fact they out of all the regions seem to do the least to embrace their entire region

they are going to miss laulala next season big time....fourth welsh region next year?

the 4th Welsh region next year will be the same as this year... the Dragons...
I will still go up to Rodney Parade when I can to cheer them on though!

i think unless any significant investment is made in their squad it will be tight!

Happy days

Most of what the blues need is a fly half. Helpfully, they've just bought one and offloaded the Scots plodder - so they might do all right next year.

Frankly - if a fly half can't get a back line moving with a squad consisting of Roberts, Laulala, Ha'penny, Cuthbert, Henson, James, Hewitt...they probably aren't the right fly half.

Either that or the coach is a moron. One of the two.

yes but laulala is going, has henson re signed? roberts is class but how much will he be available with the autumn int and 6n, same halfpenny and hewitt is a poor mans roberts IMO

Was hoping I'd get to see North vs Cuthbert. Worth the wait, North comes away with this one

Blues serving up two tries on a platter. There has to be a waiter's position open somewhere in Cardiff!

Well done Scarlets on the BP.

There is no way the Blues will be last of the Welsh clubs, if this happens the WRU will close the Dragons down just like they did when the blues did not qualify for the HC when they cut the Celtic Warriors. Gavin from a Dragons point of view don't go above the blues in the table to continue!

Nuff said.

West is Best?
North is better surely. Compass needs adjusting.
Like Lomu he's a freak and talk about an impact player...have a bit of that. Superb.
If he's not raking it in at Toulouse or Toulon next season then i'll eat my shorts.
Best team won. No gripes about that.

North signed a three year deal with the Scarlets last season, so he's got another two years with us. You best start eating your shorts.

What a match, 2nd half was amazing, was sat in amongst the Scarlets lot and it was superb with all the singing. Loved it.

Rubbish first half dished up by two patched up 15s both with lots of first choice players missing! After another prror 10 minutes in the second half and another two "gift wrapped" trys, the game really picked up. Sweeny got the Blues going forward and Laulala scored a brilliant individual try.

The Scarlets were not outdone though and a great turnover from Day (must have pushed Turnbull close for MoM) resulted in a try for Gareth Davies (poor attempt at a tackle for Henson!) The icing on the cake was an incredible thrust from North (was it his only touch of the ball?), he went straight through Wales team colleauge Cuthbert to offload to Day for the bonus point try. To be fair to Cuthbert, I don't think he expected North to be still accelerating after going through Lloyd Williams attempt at a tackle.

Good performances from: Liam Williams, Jon Davies, Rhodri Jones, Ken Owens, Dom Day and Turnbull and for the Blues; Laulala, Cuthbert (in patches), James Down and Cardiff's best player on the night Navidi.

There were a number of good performances, you should add Gareth Davies, Fenby, turn bull and Henson to that list.

GavinDragon wrote:blues are in turmoil...fourth welsh region next year?

They're only eight points above us and there's still some rugby to be played this season - who's to say they won't be fourth-placed region at the end of this season?

luckless_pedestrian wrote:

GavinDragon wrote:blues are in turmoil...fourth welsh region next year?

They're only eight points above us and there's still some rugby to be played this season - who's to say they won't be fourth-placed region at the end of this season?

Yeah the run in to the end of the season is really hotting up. The Blues have the Scarlets just in front, and the Dragons just behind. I guess it will be down to what happens next weekend as to whether the Blues are in the chase, or being chased in the final few games.

Blues remaining fixtures: Glasgow (A), Ospreys (H), Edinburgh (H), Scarlets (A).

Dragons remaining fixtures: Connacht (H), Treviso (H), Ospreys (A), Leinster (H)

I honestly think, if teams stick to form, the Blues will only get a win against Edinburgh, tis whether or not they pick up any LBP's on the way.

Which ones do you reckon the Dragons can win, Lucky?

Blues (45pts, Max 65pts) remaining fixtures: Glasgow (A), Ospreys (H), Edinburgh (H), Scarlets (A).

Dragons (33pts, Max 53pts) remaining fixtures: Connacht (H), Treviso (H), Ospreys (A), Leinster (H)

Scarlets (50pts, Max 70pts) remaining fixtures; Edinburgh (A), Aironi (A), Munster (H), Blues (H)

So I guess it all depends on how long/if the Blues return to form, or if other teams like Leinster/Edinburgh/Munster get distracted by the HEC seeing as their pretty much know if they are in the play-offs or not already.

Should be a good last few games and a few different mathematical chances (E.g. Blues and Scarlets draw against each other and lose all other games with no bonus points, and Dragons get full points in all games, Dragons finish 2nd region).

I don't know about us finishing 2nd region, Spiderman!

Dreamer, I'd hope we can win them all! But of our home games, I'd be disappointed if we lost to Connacht, Treviso are a decent side but we can beat them and then it depends on what kind of side Leinster send over (they could well be resting their top players by that point). If our scrum can hold its own against the Ospreys' scrum, who's to say we can't turn them over at the Library?