Cardiff Blues v Edinburgh - build-up, teams, banter and live match day thread

[George Carlin]

First topic message reminder :

No thread about this yet (I don't think), so let's get this started:

7 September 2012
Venue: Cardiff Arms Park
Kick off: 7.05 pm
Coverage: live on BBC Wales

Referee: David Wilkinson (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Sean Brickell, Jason Langdon (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Aurwel Morgan (WRU)
TMO: Neil Ballard (WRU)

Teams:

Blues:

15. Leigh Halfpenny
14. Alex Cuthbert
13. Gavin Evans
12. Dafydd Hewitt
11. Tom James

10. Ceri Sweeney
9. Lewis Jones

1. Taufa'ao Filise
2. Rhys Williams
3. Benoit Bourrust
4. Bradley Davies
5. James Down
6. Josh Navidi
7. Sam Warburton
8. Andries Pretorius (c)

Substitutes:

16. Marc Breeze
17. Nathan Trevett
18. Thomas Davies
19. Lou Reed
20. Luke Hamilton
21. Lloyd Williams
22. Rhys Patchell
23. Thomas Williams

Edinburgh:

15 Greig Tonks
14 Lee Jones
13 Nick De Luca
12 John Houston
11 Tim Visser

10 Greig Laidlaw (c)
9 Richie Rees

1 Allan Jacobsen
2 Ross Ford
3 Geoff Cross
4 Grant Gilchrist
5 Sean Cox
6 David Denton
7 Roddy Grant
8 Stuart McInally

Substitutes:
16 Andy Titterrell
17 John Yapp
18 Willem Nel
19 Perry Parker
20 Netani Talei
21 Chris Leck
22 Gregor Hunter
23 Sep Visser

Unavailable:
Ben Atiga (hip)
Tom Brown (hamstring strain)
Ben Cairns (knee)
Steven Lawrie (knee)
Matt Scott (pre-season)
Steven Turnbull (shoulder)

This game is always a cracker and lovely to be back at the spiritual home of the Blues.

Form:

1. Cardiff:

Blues, of course, began the new season with a 13-9 victory in Connacht.

They won both matches they played at the Arms Park last season (against Connacht and Ulster) and won their opening two encounters last season.

2. Edinburgh:

Edinburgh had to settle for a losing bonus point in their reversal to Munster at Murrayfield last Saturday.

Amazingly, Edinburgh's only away win in their last 19 trips in the PRO12 was at Treviso last November. Edinburgh hasn't won in Wales since a visit to Scarlets on 4 December 2009.

The Blues have won their last four games against Edinburgh Rugby in the RaboDirect PRO12, whilst Edinburgh have been victorious on four of their last five visits to the Arms Park.

[Imperialbigdave]

Do you think Farndale is ready for a shot RDW? The game coming up against Zebre at home would seem a really good opportunity to give him a run out.

I would take any safe pair of hands at the moment, he has dropped 60-70% of passes that come his way over the past 2 games, and theres the well known issue with his tackling, which after improvements last season has been worse than ever so far this season. Its like being down to 14 men at times the way De Luca is having to make Jones's tackles for him.

[RDW]

Sep Visser is another shout - played well in pre season and looked strong

[EST]

Yeah, neither Penn or Jones fill me with huge confidence right now. I would be tempted to start Visser Jnr and bring on Farndale if things are going well.

[RDW]

Will probably start a new thread on this for the Zebra game - unless someone else does it!

[Captain_Sensible]

Go for it, RDW.

[RDW]

Done

https://www.606v2.com/t34715-edinburgh-v-the-zebras#1534018

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