Cardiff Blues vs Ulster

Massive welcome back from Ulster to Matthew Rees- great to see him back on the pitch. Major milestones also for Lou Reed who makes his 100th appearance in the league for Cardiff, and Tom Court who is playing his 150th game for Ulster.

CARDIFF BLUES

15. Dan Fish
14. Alex Cuthbert
13. Cory Allen
12. Isaia Tuifua
11. Chris Czekaj
10. Gareth Davies
9. Lewis Jones

1. Gethin Jenkins (c)
2. Kristian Dacey
3. Taufa'ao Filise
4. Lou Reed
5. Filo Paulo
6. Macauley Cook
7. Josh Navidi
8. Robin Copeland

16. Matthew Rees 17. Thomas Davies 18. Scott Andrews 19. James Down 20. Ellis Jenkins 21. Lloyd Williams 22. Simon Humberstone 23. Gavin Evans

ULSTER

15. Jared Payne
14. Tommy Bowe
13. Darren Cave
12. Luke Marshall
11. Andrew Trimble
10. Paddy Jackson
9. Michael Heaney

1. Tom Court
2. Rob Herring
3. John Afoa
4. Johann Muller (c)
5. Dan Tuohy
6. Stephen Ferris
7. Chris Henry
8. Nick Williams

16. Niall Annett 17. Andy Warwick 18. Ricky Lutton 19. Iain Henderson 20. Robbie Diack 21. Sean Doyle 22. Paul Marshall 23. Craig Gilroy

At Arms Park, 6.30pm. Live on S4C and BBC Sport Northern Ireland

Referee: Marius Mitrea (FIR, 25th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Gwyn Morris, Sean Brickell (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Russell Howell (WRU)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (WRU)

Cant see anything other than an away win here, the only positive and a great positive it for the Blues is Rees returning.

Great achievement for him personally and shows huge character and deterimination, well done Matthew and all the best.

I wonder if he fancies a trip to South Africa in June?

That's a decent team from the Blues, but given the mess they're in it has got to be a 5 pointer for Ulster.

I'm so glad he is back, will be great to see him play again and pick up some form. Will be a massive boost to the welsh team as well. The blues have missed leadership and a first choice captain this season. He will be a timely boost.

Try time Darren Cave after just 3 minutes

Should get the hook out and get fish off
If he not going to tackle

Cuthbert is in such bad form...

Blues have improved what is going on good game so far

Some of the Blues decision making is just awful - for example, what on earth was G.Davies trying to do running sideways?

Ulster giving away a silly amount of penalties, really killing us.

We've been absolute tom kite. Mainly because we're so lazy clearing the breakdown. Most of our backs and some of our forwards don't bother themselves and tonight that attitude has spread to defence as well!

Awful from Ulster

Where on earth has this driving maul come from!!!

Almost over the line from halfway!

Also clever kick from Allen with the advantage - Cuthbert has finished a lot harder than that

Ulster will need to learn how to defend the driving maul or they are toast, and i'm not talking about this game only.

Fair play Cuthbert...fair play

another chance to see Copeland's pace

I don't understand what is happening,...what does it mean when your teams score is higher than the other teams?

Wow some try here.

This is a possessed Blues team...

VinceWLB wrote:This is a possessed Blues team...

Finally!

It's only taken about 10 absolutely dire performances to finally get a reaction.

The changes made from last week have really helped.

Dacey can actually throw a straight lineout and is a menace in the loose

Filise is still a better scrummager than Andrews at the age of about 100.

Lou Reed being fit is a boost in the second row.

Lewis Jones is playing really well, Lloyd Williams will be lucky to get any gametime next season with Knoyle arriving.

and the biggest impact is not having Gavin Evans or Hewitt in the team! ICE is doing a great job of getting us over the gainline which is giving our backrow a far better platform and Ulster are giving away all the penalties.

The Ponty coaches are starting to get some impact thank god Davies has gone. Good game and a decent ref performance. Ulster don t seem up for this mainly the forwards.

What is going on here from Ulster?? Minds elsewhere? Too much worry about getting injured perhaps?

Penalty count is dire.

In fairness, we were penalised for not releasing one time when Tuifua had one hand on the ground, and his chest resting on another player whilst competing. He was practically horizontal. Drives me mad when refs give those.

Just seen the current score on Alba. What the heck is happening?
Take it the Blues are finally fighting back after all those woeful showings?

Ulster are a disgrace to the jersey and themselves, is whats happening

This could be what Ulster needs before next week get this performance out their system.

And so the implosion begins...

or am I too pessimistic?

Here we normal service resumes

Fish is poor as is the ulster scrum half

Great defence, if Ulster scored then I would have backed them to win.

Jenkins captain performance so far

I don't get that penalty. Both players have hands on ball, they both go to ground. Whats the law? How did Nick Williams get penalised?

Phew!

Ah diack should have fell on that ball but Marshall was definately held up

Yep, this is the Blues team I know...

oh that was some hit on young Warwick, welcome to pro rugby fella lol

Annet is on with Herring not getting it right

Bowe should have given that pass and Ulster were in, but still 5 points in it going to be a big end to this match

Here it comes...

that should have been a yellow for the 12 knew exactly what he was doing, 2 points now big 6 minutes

The Blues slowly imploding. Hope they can hold on

God Dan Fish and Gareth Davies have been awful...again

Lewis Jones was organising the backline and now he is off...

Fish is costing the blues

Loving Cory Allen's defensive work today - best young defender since Roberts came through, - perhaps even better

Payne was held in that ruck how did the ref not see him being held by the leg there to win the penalty?

Was going to say this looks like a much improved effort by the Blues but won't be applicable if they bottle it, which it sounds like they might.

Pathetic performance from Ulster

That is not how you close out a game   

Great breakdown work from Copeland and Jenkins to win it!

Finally a win...

Well done Cardiff, great bit of defence at the end to win it. Ulster will need to be an awful lot better next week

Disgraceful. Gutless. Incompetent. Inept. Shameful.

well done blues - nailbiting at the end. good to see a gutsy performance from a welsh region for a change - lord knows its been long enough

Well done The Blues! Just like against Toulon they decided to tease us at the end!!!

Hard to believe only one try each well done both teams