Cardiff Blues v Glasgow Warriors, 14 September

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Cardiff Blues v Glasgow Warriors 
Sunday 14 September 2014, KO 16:00
BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff

Live on S4C/BBC Teuchter

Referee: John Lacey (IRFU, 36th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Wayne Davies, Jon Mason (both)
Citing Commissioner: Gwyn Bowden (WRU)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (WRU)

A. Teams:

I. Cardiff Blues

15 Adam Thomas
14 Alex Cuthbert
13 Cory Allen
12 Gavin Evans
11 Dan Fish
10 Rhys Patchell
9 Lewis Jones

1 Sam Hobbs
2 Matthew Rees
3 Adam Jones
4 Jarrad Hoeata
5 Filo Paulo
6 Josh Turnbull
7 Sam Warburton
8 Manoa Vosawai

16 Kristian Dacey
17 Taufa'ao Filise
18 Scott Andrews
19 Macauley Cook
20 Josh Navidi
21 Lloyd Williams
22 Gareth Davies
23 Richard Smith

II. Glasgow Warriors

15. Peter Murchie
14. Tommy Seymour
13. Mark Bennett
12. Alex Dunbar
11. Sean Lamont
10. Peter Horne
09. Henry Pyrgos

01. Alex Allan
02. Pat MacArthur
03. Rossouw de Klerk
04. Tim Swinson
05. Jonny Gray
06. Rob Harley
07. Chris Fusaro
08. Josh Strauss (Captain)

16. Fraser Brown
17. Gordon Reid
18. Jerry Yanuyanutawa
19. Leone Nakarawa
20. James Eddie
21. Niko Matawalu
22. Duncan Weir
23. DTH van der Merwe

B. Form - head to head:

24 Played 24
12 Wins 12
12 Losses 12
0 Draws 0
46 Tries 45
32 Conversions 33
48 Penalties 56
2 Drop Goals 2
444 Points 465
25 Avg. Age 25

C. Form - last season:

6 September 2013, 19:35 (league)
Glasgow Warriors 22 - 15 Cardiff Blues
Scotstoun Stadium

6 December 2013, 20:00 (Heineken Cup)
Cardiff Blues 29 - 20 Glasgow Warriors
Arms Park

13 December 2013, 20:00 (Heineken Cup)
Glasgow Warriors 7 - 9 Cardiff Blues
Scotstoun Stadium

15 February 2014, 18:30 (league)
Cardiff Blues 20 - 27 Glasgow Warriors
Arms Park

jimbopip wrote:GC, there is no argument about Mad Mental Mata's genius with ball in hand. None whatsoever. Nor is there any dubiety about his love for the club/ supporters/ city. A love which is reciprocated.
Unfortunately, it's what he does when the opposition have the ball (mainly) that is worrying me.
I...................
I know that Mata is a rare talent. I just don't know that he wins us more points over a season than (a) Chris Cooseater (b) Henners Piecrust or (c) he actually costs us.
................... And I hate saying this because the creative, artistic side of me just wants to watch him make it up as he goes along. The more pragmatic side wants to see Glasgow win something.

So how are you feeling about him now? No doubt at all his first try turned the match, his second was also some sublime skills both with the pass to the wing and the support lines - and no brain farts - ( although at a couple of pens no Weegie would let him have the ball ;-) )

And what a good advert for the league - much better game that the saints / Wasps I watched before. Two teams trying to attack not two teams trying not to lose

TJ wrote:

jimbopip wrote:GC, there is no argument about Mad Mental Mata's genius with ball in hand. None whatsoever. Nor is there any dubiety about his love for the club/ supporters/ city. A love which is reciprocated.
Unfortunately, it's what he does when the opposition have the ball (mainly) that is worrying me.
I...................
I know that Mata is a rare talent. I just don't know that he wins us more points over a season than (a) Chris Cooseater (b) Henners Piecrust or (c) he actually costs us.
................... And I hate saying this because the creative, artistic side of me just wants to watch him make it up as he goes along. The more pragmatic side wants to see Glasgow win something.

So how are you feeling about him now?  No doubt at all his first try turned the match, his second was also some sublime skills both with the pass to the wing and the support lines - and no brain farts - ( although at a couple of pens no Weegie would let him have the ball ;-) )

I don't think any Glasgow fan has any doubt about what Niko brings to the team, the question is really what is the best way to harness it. Bringing him on later in the game and the opposition having to deal with something completely different may be the best way. Don't forget that Henry has been playing well also, there is also a place for his solid steady game. He is under rated and much improved. I am not saying we should play him as a sub in every game, I have a feeling that he may well start next week with McConnell on the bench, but that may be the best option for him in the bigger games. All the professional players accept that it is a 23 man game these days and are not necessrerily going to take being on the bench as a slur on their abilities. You just can't play to harum scarum from the start of the game. It is exactly what we tried to do against The Blues in the 2 HC fixtures last year and look how that cost us.

I am not sure if the rotation s going to be quire as wild as last year by Toonie, but you can bet that he is going to keep mixing and matching in some shape or form. Two wins from two, against two of the better teams in the league and playing better than we did at this stage last year as well. He must be doing something right!

Josh Strauss and Johnny Gray - feckin awesome !

Great performance by Glasgow - 2 slightly fortunate tries but thats pro sport. Blues never looked like scoring a try despite periods of forward dominance. Blues looked clueless after Patchell passed the ball to the backs. Mixed performance from lewis jones, missed a few opportunities but played well. was glad to finally see paulo put in some monster hits and not give away pens or get carded.

Glasgow look a well organised competitive team who will be very hard to beat this year. Bossed the breakdown. Hammer will see how tougher the breakdown is outside super rugby !

That was a proper team performance by Glasgow, you could see the blues haven't gelled just yet but with new signings throughout the pack that was expected.

Positives
Our scrum looks solid and got on top in the second half, Adam Jones showing he can still do it. Unfortunately it didn't do much when Andrews and Filise came on.

Driving lineouts look to be coming along although still sloppy at times.

Negatives

My gripe was with the ref's positioning, he stood about 10 yards from every ruck and got in the way of both the attacking team and defending team on numerous occassions.

Also, Cuthbert was again horrendous. He can make flashy breaks and can finish but when it's not going his way he just goes to pieces and doesn't pass, trying to do it all himself and moans when it doesn't go his way. My mrs said he looked like a schoolboy who'd been given detention after one penalty, head tilted back and moaning.

Fish wasn't great either, shies away from tackling too much.

We need to get Watkins in and up to speed and also another winger and centre, how Gavin Evans keeps getting selected i have no idea.

I'm not going to criticise Patchell because he's just got nothing to work with. The ball he gets isn't great and when he gets it he has Gavin Evans outside him! I would like to see him deployed at 12 when Anscombe is here, just to see if he can offer anything there for the Blues because we;ve got no creativity at 12.

Again a bit of a worry that two weeks in a row now they've got the 3 tries but failed to push on and get the 4th, but it is still early days and this is a long season.

They need to try to rack up as many TBP before the Glasgow winter comes on though!

Excellent win for Glasgow, only really looked under pressure when Jerry came on and our scrum got taken apart. Hopefully wont see him at TH too often this season.

Overall a proper team performance, sprinkled with a little bit of Niko was more than enough to get the job done.

Considering we still have 1/2 a dozen players to come back in who would strengthen that 23 its looking good for another season competing at the top end of the table.

No Try BP from the opening two weekends is disappointing, although having offered me eight points two weeks ago, I would have been very happy to take that.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Again a bit of a worry that two weeks in a row now they've got the 3 tries but failed to push on and get the 4th, but it is still early days and this is a long season.

They need to try to rack up as many TBP before the Glasgow winter comes on though!

As problems go, a lack of TBPs is one of the easier ones to have to deal with

Agree though that without collecting the regularly, over the season it makes things tougher.

Dorothy_Mantooth wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Again a bit of a worry that two weeks in a row now they've got the 3 tries but failed to push on and get the 4th, but it is still early days and this is a long season.

They need to try to rack up as many TBP before the Glasgow winter comes on though!

As problems go, a lack of TBPs is one of the easier ones to have to deal with  

Agree though that without collecting the regularly, over the season it makes things tougher.

Absolutely. These are the standards you need to set though if you are going to come top of the league - Glasgow should have got the TBP last week and we know last season that they were only 3 points behind Leinster in the final table, even though they won 1 more game than Leinster. These missing TBPs quickly add up.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

Dorothy_Mantooth wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Again a bit of a worry that two weeks in a row now they've got the 3 tries but failed to push on and get the 4th, but it is still early days and this is a long season.

They need to try to rack up as many TBP before the Glasgow winter comes on though!

As problems go, a lack of TBPs is one of the easier ones to have to deal with  

Agree though that without collecting the regularly, over the season it makes things tougher.

Absolutely.  These are the standards you need to set though if you are going to come top of the league - Glasgow should have got the TBP last week and we know last season that they were only 3 points behind Leinster in the final table, even though they won 1 more game than Leinster.  These missing TBPs quickly add up.

Last week the way we took control of the game should have been a 5-0 match result for us, no argument from me on that. However at times you need to look at the opposition and Leinster, deserve credit for getting back into the game and making it 4-1 end result.

Congrats to Glasgow. They out did us at the breakdown and when you take in to account we had Warbs and Turnbull that is no mean feat. I honestly thought we were on to win that game. 9-13, we're smashing the scrums and a man just goes in to the bin. The next 10 mins were the worst i've seen from us in years, and that says something. Shipping 10 points when a man up is dreadful. That man. . . Matawalu. I was worried about him coming off the bench and when he did he made things happen.

Turnbull looked dreadful. He needs to pull him thumb out. Gavin Evans is honestly the worst back at any team in the league. I will never understand how he is being picked. Cuthbert needs to learn to pass. On the plus our scrum looked good. Any game where i don't whine about Hobbs is a feat in its self. Our second row looked strong and Vos looks a great player. Not impressed by Adam Thomas though.

Glasgow got lots of respect from the Blues fans and Welsh rugby press this morning which is traditional but still good to see. True fans of the game in Cardiff.

Lots of quality on show from both sides and it's another good advert for the league.

From the footage I saw, Glasgow's defence will win them a lot of games this season, just as it did last season. We got by in the scrum just about - remember that this game was on a Sunday, so no Euan Murray. Looking forward to Welsh, Grant, Hall and Cusack coming back soon or we may get our backsides handed to us against the likes of Ulster.

Patchell does look special and those 60m howitzer kicks will win the Blues a lot of games this season. 10 Anscombe 12 Patchell looks about right to me and will make a big difference to the whole team's attacking shape. Blues did get monstered at the breakdown but that will happen less and less as the loose forward combo works together more and more. Warbs played well by every account I have read.

Am not bothered about BPs from a Glasgow perspective - that will come when we have Niko, Horne/Russell, Dunbar, Bennett, DTH, Maitland and Hogg all on the field at the same time. I would have bitten your hand off for 8 points from these first 2 games before the start of the season.

I forgot to mention the Glasgow defence which was actually their strongest aspect of the game in my opinion. Shut us down easily. To stop us scoring a try at home, on our own plastic is a very hard thing to do.

George Carlin wrote:
Am not bothered about BPs from a Glasgow perspective

So come the end of the season If Leinster are 1 point ahead in the league will you still not be as bothered?

As DoT has said, it is a nice problem to have, and it is still very early days, but we're talking about winning the league here - Glasgow have to set these kind of standards.

I think we need a little bit of perspective here. Leinster are reigning champions and Cardiff are the 'dark horses' of the league (and still are - their back line problems will undoubtedly be solved). I would say that playing Leinster at home and Cardiff away are some if our most difficult fixtures this year, and I didn't expect to win either if them. That we did win them, and deservedly so, is a real achievement.

Obviously I want TBPs, but I don't think that's where we fell down last year - it was losing twice to Dragons (not even getting the LBP at home) and letting the Leinster game slip away in March.

Came back home to watch the last 30 - Glasgow look like letting it slip away; go down to 14; and then - that man!

I really loved Hugh-Dan's aside to Finn Russell - "You know what the Gaelic for 'incredible' is? Matawalu!

Sheer class!

Im not so much annoyed at the loss, more that a couple of those tries were really soft. But then on reflection, this is a new squad with a new coach, things take time to click together.

TJ wrote:

jimbopip wrote:GC, there is no argument about Mad Mental Mata's genius with ball in hand. None whatsoever. Nor is there any dubiety about his love for the club/ supporters/ city. A love which is reciprocated.
Unfortunately, it's what he does when the opposition have the ball (mainly) that is worrying me.
I...................
I know that Mata is a rare talent. I just don't know that he wins us more points over a season than (a) Chris Cooseater (b) Henners Piecrust or (c) he actually costs us.
................... And I hate saying this because the creative, artistic side of me just wants to watch him make it up as he goes along. The more pragmatic side wants to see Glasgow win something.

So how are you feeling about him now?  No doubt at all his first try turned the match, his second was also some sublime skills both with the pass to the wing and the support lines - and no brain farts - ( although at a couple of pens no Weegie would let him have the ball ;-) )

TJ, I am saying exactly the same thing. When he does what he did yesterday he is a joy to watch, an utter joy. In all honestly I would rather watch him than Kylie in her lingerie advert on a bucking bull.
No really,because when it all goes awry for Kylie it's still worth watching...However, when Mata goes jubblies up it usually costs us the game.

p.s. I reckon the Toonie Muppet rating is about 0.5% he has Glasgow playing with a real sense of confidence and freedom. It was almost Gallic at times. And Gallus.

IronMike wrote:Im not so much annoyed at the loss, more that a couple of those tries were really soft. But then on reflection, this is a new squad with a new coach, things take time to click together.

Agreed.
Some positives from the game; go forward pack, competitive scrum at last and Patchell's developing nicely.
Some not so positives; lethargic support play at times, 2nd nay 3rd best at the breakdown and errors by both SHs leading to soft tries. And we need a 12.

Notch wrote:

Neutralee wrote:I'd prolly go as far as criticising the coaching set up too, no link between forwards and backs, no coherant phase play, and very 1 dimensional gameplan, not to mention the mess of a restart.

Mark Hammett has only been there for a matter of weeks. It will take time.

Indeed and it's only his 2nd competitive game in charge with a team he has inherited. I believe Adam J was a surprise to him too. All I hope is the Pieman for once allows the coach a free rein without interference from others.