Cardiff Blues v Scarlets

Blues:
15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Cory Allen, 12 Adam Thomas, 11 Lucas Amorosino, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Lewis Jones,
1 Gethin Jenkins (Capt), 2 Kristian Dacey, 3 Adam Jones, 4 Filo Paulo, 5 Lou Reed, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 Sam Warburton, 8 King Josh

Replacements:
16 Matthew Rees, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Taufa'ao Filise, 19 Macauley Cook, 20 Manoa Vosawai, 21 Tavis Knoyle, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Tom Isaacs


Scarlets 
15 Steffan Evans, 14 Harry Robinson, 13 Regan King, 12 Scott Williams (Capt), 11 Michael Tagicakibau, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Aled Davies; 1 Rob Evans, 2 Emyr Phillips, 3 Samson Lee, 4 Jake Ball, 5 Johan Snyman, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 James Davies, 8 Rob McCusker

Replacements:

16 Kirby Myhill, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Rhodri Jones, 19 Lewis Rawlins, 20 Will Boyde, 21 Rhodri Williams, 22 Steven Shingler, 23 Hadleigh Parkes

KO 7:35pm Friday 19th December, Cardiff Arms Park
BBC 2 Wales

Some good talking points in this game. The old guard of the Wales front row vs the new breed of up and comers. A strong looking Blues backline with both Argies starting together. No Gavin Evans! Really looking forward to tonight. I believe someone mentioned on another thread that 9,000 tickets have been sold so far?

Eastern Fail rate the Blues as having a minor edge in the backs, and the Scarlets an edge in the pack. And they rate the coaches equal. So all in all the fail is bottling a prediction.

Personally I think the Scarlets should win IF we front up well, however I wouldn't be surprised if Blues put in their first decent performance in the League and thump us.

I'd agree that i think you lot have the edge in the pack. From what i heard on the Radio you gave Ulster a drumming upfront and Rob Evans sounded like he was doing a job. Not sure about our backs. Very little time together. We also lost Williams who has been in good form. Pivac has said in the media that you'll be coming for Anscombe. Hopefully he gets his arse in to gear.

Coleman wrote:5 Lou Reed

Finally a selection that makes sense, a lock playing in the 2nd row

Been a long road for Lou back to the first team. Hope he makes the most of it.

Together Filo Paulo that's quite a beefy pairing and i haven't seen the Blues' pack taking a backward step when they lined up together at the end of last season, and that was without Adam!

The much vaunted Scarlets' pack will have a job in its hand.

Reed is lacking game time which is a worry and Filo has been poor this season. I do think it'll be a long night in the scrum. Very glad Dacey is starting as i think he's eclipsed Rees in all aspects of him game.

Could be a close call as both teams are poor in defence so there could be a lot of try's. The front row battle will be interesting as well as the half backs, I suspect the Blues will raise their game in the second half to win, just.

Like a Clark's pie, it'll be tasty.

Hope it's not a Peters pie

glamorganalun wrote:Hope it's not a Peters pie

Aye and that's a valley's pie; full of hot air mostly.

Josh Navidi

Great start, Tuculet looks quality

13-0 already? Come on Terks. Do something.

Crap defence again by Scarlets, good finish.

Scarlets haven't turned up tonight. Fancied this as well

Mark and Gareth having a chat. Holland to the left of them.

Scarlets making the Blues look good, the defence is poor, should be a bonus point for the Blues tonight.

Good game from the Bloos - the best I've seen from them this season.

One way traffic

Crap ref good game, Scarlets must get better.

wales606 wrote:Josh Navidi

That's King Josh!

Great performance by the blues pack... Especially good form by Adam and Geth

J Davies praising anything Preistland does even a simple pass, he is supposed to be an international 10, yes is not having a bad game but not a great game.

Much better from the Scarlets, still could be a good finish to this game.

glamorganalun wrote:J Davies praising anything Preistland does even a simple pass, he is supposed to be an international 10, yes is not having a bad game but not a great game.

Correct on all counts. But everyone seems to be doing that lately. It seems people are no longer allowed an opinion even when the truth is smacking you across the face.

Great break where was the wing?

I was hoping Adam Jones would return to international form, but I don't think he ever will. Scarlets scrum is the dominant one tonight, they've been unlucky on some decisions there but are useless with ball in hand anyway.

Shock horror from Jiffy who can't agree with an average fly-half being replaced...

Well done Adam not a spent force.

glamorganalun wrote:Well done Adam not a spent force.

Not yet, but almost by the looks of it. Hope he gets better.

I think Knoyle might have been a snail in a former life.

Cuthbert, our 'first choice' winger for Wales has been anonymous again tonight. Why doesn't Gats pick on form.

This games was good for about the first 30 mins!

The Saint wrote:

glamorganalun wrote:Well done Adam not a spent force.

Not yet, but almost by the looks of it. Hope he gets better.

Notice how he started to struggle once Lou Reed came off.

VinceWLB wrote:

The Saint wrote:

glamorganalun wrote:Well done Adam not a spent force.

Not yet, but almost by the looks of it. Hope he gets better.

Notice how he started to struggle once Lou Reed came off.

Reed had a really good game. Impressed me. We did lose our grip in the scrum when we went off

Should Navidi get a crack for Wales? Was never convinced by him and certainly didn't think he was an 8 but he had a very good game tonight and seems to have been doing it most of the season.

bedfordwelsh wrote:Should Navidi get a crack for Wales?  Was never convinced by him and certainly didn't think he was an 8 but he had a very good game tonight and seems to have been doing it most of the season.

If Faletau is fit then no one else gets a look in at 8 for Wales atm. He and Parisse are the best all round 8s in the NH. Their link play and ability to 'rescue' the ball when their scrum is retreating sets them apart for me.

I would have said that a fit Dan Baker would be next in line from what I've seen this season.

Pitman needs to improve his catching and offloading.

Just my opinions mind.

Edit - maybe pick Navidi in a wider Welsh training squad to see how he fits in with that environment. He has shown that he can cover more than one back row position.

Great thing about Navidi is that whatever number he has on his back he does all three backrow jobs in carrying like an 8 tackling like a 6 and linking like a 7. The tough thing for him is he is not quite the best in Wales at any of those, but if Gatland ever wants to go with one man on the bench to cover the entire backrow nobody could do that better.

SH's analysis of the scrum was interesting with Gethin and Dacey targeting and clearly getting the better of Lee then Adam was up against prop and hooker himself and did a pretty good job I thought.

Not sure why Navidi hasn't 'got no fans' - he's a better 7 than Tips.

Just watched the game on iPlayer, I knew the result already thankfully otherwise I'd have been fuming we failed to win. Harry Robinson is not up to the pro12 standards IMO, he works hard, but I think Kris or Jordan would have finished off a few of the opportunities Harry had.

Dudley Philips seemed to have a good game IMO, a few slightly harsh calls each way, but refs can't get everything right.

Anscomme should not be in the running for a dual contract, he was no better than Priest, if anything worse!

Turnbull will be banned, but it was definitely accidental, but the way the citings go nowadays, he will prob sit out until late Jan/early Feb.

McCusker's tackle on Reed was late, but not a tip, he controlled Lou's decent. Navidi's tackle was a tip, because Pitman was 'driven' to the floor. But personally I'd have turned a blind eye.

And Snyman deserved a shove (let's face it that's all it was), after all he pretty much asked for it.

I thought Turnnball's tackle on Reed wasn't even a penalty! They seemed to be claiming that he lifted Reed's leg up, but in my opinion the player kicked his leg up, which is a natural reaction to try to re-balance yourself in that sort of situation. Anyone ever fallen backwards off a chair? One of the first things you do is thrown your arms and legs up!

That's why these things are so hard to officiate IMO. So many harsh calls that were never even on the ref's radar over 4 years ago (pre last RWC).

Griff, the ref and video ref were happy that it wasn't a tip tackle on Reed, but decided it was late.

The Saint wrote:Not sure why Navidi hasn't 'got no fans' - he's a better 7 than Tips.

Saint,

He's certainly gone up in my estimation, I think moving to No8 could prove a very good move for him, he was never going to get a look in at 7 while Sam is fit not in the big games anyway but he seems to be really staking his claim at 8.

As much as I agree Faletau is still our first choice by some way there are some others pushing him now, Baker, Pitman and Navidi.

bedfordwelsh wrote:

The Saint wrote:Not sure why Navidi hasn't 'got no fans' - he's a better 7 than Tips.

Saint,

He's certainly gone up in my estimation, I think moving to No8 could prove a very good move for him, he was never going to get a look in at 7 while Sam is fit not in the big games anyway but he seems to be really staking his claim at 8.

As much as I agree Faletau is still our first choice by some way there are some others pushing him now, Baker, Pitman and Navidi.

No, but he is versatile and could take the place of Tips on the bench. Not that I doubt Tips ability, but he was off form Wales. Navidi seems to do a lot of the hard graft that a good flanker is famed for, but also has ball-playing ability like Tips.

Pitman is a bit hit and miss IMO, plus he needs to lose a bit of weight.

Pitman needs to work on his fitness, and his hands before he can be considered to be of a decent regional standard, let alone international. I don't doubt that he has the ability to do it, and seeing how the Scarlets sorted out Ben Morgan, I do believe Pitman could well make the grade.

Navidi is one of those unsung players, but I have a feeling if/when he gets his chance he will have been hyped up as under rated to a point where he becomes over rated (Bishop-syndrome).