Cardiff Blues V Edinburgh

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Cardiff Blues V Edinburgh

At BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park, 12.45pm Live on S4C/BBC ALBA
Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU, 47th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Ben Whitehouse, Neil Hennessy (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Jeff Mark (WRU)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (WRU)

Teams

Cardiff Blues
Joaquin Tuculet, Richard Smith, Cory Allen, Gavin Evans, Tom Isaacs, Rhys Patchell, Lloyd Williams; Sam Hobbs, Matthew Rees (c), Adam Jones, Filo Paulo, Jarrad Hoeata, Josh Turnbull, Ellis Jenkins, Manoa Vosawai.

Replacements: Kristian Dacey, Thomas Davies, Taufa'ao Filise, Lou Reed, Macauley Cook, Tavis Knoyle, Gareth Davies, Adam Thomas.

Edinburgh

Jack Cuthbert, Dougie Fife, Sam Beard, Phil Burleigh, Tim Visser, Jade Te Rure, Grayson Hart, Rory Sutherland, Neil Cochrane, WP Nel, Ollie Atkins, Anton Bresler, Mike Coman (C), Roddy Grant, David Denton.

Replacements: Stuart McInally, Grant Shiells, John Andress, Fraser McKenzie, Hugh Blake, Nathan Fowles, Tom Heathcote, Andries Strauss.

Official Blurb

Pro 12 website wrote:Cardiff Blues have slipped to three straight Guinness PRO12 defeats but have not lost four in a row since this time last year, whilst their only victory at BT Sports Cardiff Arms Park in their last four fixtures in all tournaments was 104-12 over Rovigo in the European Challenge Cup on 16th January.
Edinburgh Rugby's three game winning run in the Guinness PRO12 ended at the hands of Ulster on Friday evening.

Edinburgh won their most recent away game in the competitions, 16-13 at Connacht, and have not secured back-to-back away victories in the competition since September 2009.

Edinburgh's 28-13 victory at BT Murrayfield in round 8 ended a three game losing run against the Blues, whilst they have not achieved a PRO12 season's double over the Welshmen since season 2009/10.

My blurb

Like two bald men fighting over a comb, this game may come down to whoever tries to lose the least.  The Blues had a bad defeat away to the worst team in the league last week, and Edinburgh somehow managed to lose to Ulster despite being a man up for the last 20 minutes and two men up for the last 6.

Recent form suggests that it was more of a blip from Edinburgh's point of view as they had won 3 pro 12 games before that, and Blues have lost 3 Pro 12 games in a row.

If Edinburgh can sort out their lineout and kick their goals I reckon we can win this one.  If not, home advantage will see the Blues home.

2nd last chance saloon!

We should have closed out this game ages ago.

We finally have a win!

Even if it was a poor performance to limp past Edinburgh at home...

Well done Blues, deserved that on balance, took their chances, Edinburgh did not.

Edinburgh can't have any complaints about not making the European cup next year, they have just lost to many games they should have won.

Its not been a good weekend for Scottish rugby, thank god for the U20's!

Well that was entertaining if nothing else.
Hunt for top 6 is over now. May as well chuck everything at the Amin (or whatever it's called now) QF

Well done Blues - you deserved some good news after a tough month.

There were a few positives there for Edinburgh.

Denton looked on it and will surely play for Scotland against England.

McInally finally got the chance to play and looked good, surely he deserves a start now.

That new SH, who I had never heard of looked handy when he came on as well. Worth having another look at, is he SQ?

The second rows all looked physical and gave some go forward and Nel and Sutherland look better and better.

Edinburgh probably lost that by picking Te Rure to start at FH, he had another poor half and in the end Edinburgh were always playing catch up. The bad news is that Heathcotes looks crocked now and we may not see him back this season now. Surely he will release Tonks for next week though, he really must need some game time.

Blues look nothing like a team propping up the league. Edinburgh made too many basic mistakes and never took their chances. Blues took their's well and that was the difference.

So people are coming round to my thinking on Te Rure then? Not Pro 12 standard.

Sam H-C, Tonks and Scott will surely be back next week - they should make a big difference.

Our front 5 is very good at least.

cakeordeath wrote:Blues look nothing like a team propping up the league. Edinburgh made too many basic mistakes and never took their chances. Blues took their's well and that was the difference.

Blues are really hit or miss team, when they are on they are actually decent but when they are off they are really dreadful. Can't say i'm surprised at this result and i wouldn't be surprised to see Blues get a few more wins under the new coaches.

RDW_Scotland wrote:So people are coming round to my thinking on Te Rure then? Not Pro 12 standard.

Sam H-C, Tonks and Scott will surely be back next week - they should make a big difference.

Our front 5 is very good at least.

No, not Pro 12 standard atm. Potential maybe, but not there yet. I still think they may hang on to him though, he is young enough and SQ so well worth developing.

The bottom line is that he should not have been picked for this week, though Heathcotes shocker last week may have forced Solly's hand a bit.

glamorganalun wrote:The Blues defence is a joke Visser was not touched for that last try. This is more like it for the Blues

Looked to me like our bloke at inside centre got tripped by Edinburgh's dummer runner, hence the gaping hole that the entire Visser family could have walked through.

VinceWLB wrote:

cakeordeath wrote:Blues look nothing like a team propping up the league. Edinburgh made too many basic mistakes and never took their chances. Blues took their's well and that was the difference.

Blues are really hit or miss team, when they are on they are actually decent but when they are off they are really dreadful. Can't say i'm surprised at this result and i wouldn't be surprised to see Blues get a few more wins under the new coaches.

I would and they're hardly "new" btw.

Highlights on ChumV now. 10secs I counted.

That's 2 games we could have won we lost. Really missing leaders on the pitch and Coman is not the answer.

6th place now off the cards for me. I suspect we probably ought to be looking over our shoulders now rather than at Connacht and Scarlets. We've let a whole bunch of points slip away this season.

6th place is definitely gone.

I didn't realise that we can still qualify for Europe though - we just need to win the Challenge cup, beat the equivalent English team then French time in a playoff....

How hard can it be!

RDW_Scotland wrote:6th place is definitely gone.

I didn't realise that we can still qualify for Europe though - we just need to win the Challenge cup, beat the equivalent English team then French time in a playoff....

How hard can it be!

With Te Rure at 10, impossible!!