Cardiff Blues v Treviso - KO 6:30pm on Saturday September 6th

First topic message reminder :

After last weeks shambolic display between the Dragons & the Blues, Cardiff picked up the much needed win and now sit 5th in the Pro 12 league with 2 wins from 3 and a losing bonus point. If you had said before the season started that we'd have won away against Connacht and the Dragons but lost at home to Edinburgh, i would have taken that as 'burgh are no mugs, but this is where it becomes crucial.

The Blues face Treviso on saturday and they've already beaten the Ospreys and run Leinster extremely close, the only comfort in this was that was at home and they lost their away game to Munster. It's only a small crumb as Munster are a far better team than we are right now and i think this could be a real banana skin for us. Days gone buy we'd have wanted a BP from this game but i will settle for a win and stopping them getting a LBP, get some momentum in to our season. I wouldn't turn down a 4 try win but i am unsure as to how likely this is given our previous outings.

Jamie Roberts came on in the second half of the derby game and may be put in for his first start for the Blues. No news on Halfpenny, he may be kept until the Ulster game on the 28th.

It's regional clubs day down the arms park with each regional club able to claim 25 free tickets for their members so i would say we're hoping for a big crowd. The only downside is that it's on a saturday evening, most who may go on a friday after work may not be able to make this...but then again, it's better than a saturday night in while the mrs watches Casulty so come on down!

For anyone attending the game, thearmspark forum has information about a new bar open on Womanby street called 'Solo'. It is run by cardiff blues fans and is a lot cheaper than the club with pints around £2, so hopefully this will become the pre match hub for fans before the game.

TEAM NEWS

Cardiff Blues: TBC
Treviso: TBC
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Sean Brickell, Chris Williams (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Jeff Mark (WRU)
TMO: Tony Rowlands (WRU)

Local lad scores the try!

If it wasn't for that last minute DG from Edinburgh, we would be 4/4. Sigh.

Brilliant conversion from Patchell

Ft - 34 - 18

Roberts ain't a patch on Henson. Completely different.

I'd actually be more confident having Patchell start fro Wales than Priestland.
That's quite terrifying.

glamorganalun wrote:Local lad scores the try!

Created by Rob Lewis

The other tries from Cardiff developed players Roberts and Fish, and Welsh international Tovey.

All converted by Cardiff developed fly-half Patchell

Grow up.

Roberts did his best to even up the game, I was not sure which team he was playing for.

glamorganalun wrote:Roberts did his best to even up the game, I was not sure which team he was playing for.

Probably the one he scored a try for, and not the one he spend the first half throwing on the floor in the tackle. He did have a poor second half though.

Looseheaded wrote:I'd actually be more confident having Patchell start fro Wales than Priestland.
That's quite terrifying.

Certainly if Halfpenny isn't there for place kicking.

Looseheaded wrote:I'd actually be more confident having Patchell start fro Wales than Priestland.
That's quite terrifying.

Behave! That boy's got a long way to go. I'd put Biggar in before Patchell.

Cari wrote:

Looseheaded wrote:I'd actually be more confident having Patchell start fro Wales than Priestland.
That's quite terrifying.

Behave! That boy's got a long way to go. I'd put Biggar in before Patchell.

Cari wrote:

Looseheaded wrote:I'd actually be more confident having Patchell start fro Wales than Priestland.
That's quite terrifying.

Behave! That boy's got a long way to go. I'd put Biggar in before Patchell.

So would I, but either of them above the Priest

Just watched an advert on S4C of Preistland practicing funded by the WRU, he is a cert to be picked however bad he plays just like S Jones before him. Glad to note there are others that think Preistland is not our number 1 flyhalf by a long way.

Good win for the Blues I enjoyed watching the game. It was nice to see the Blues having a crack at moving it through the backs.

Alyn:

I thought it was poor, how many tries butchered through poor skills, passing into touch, along the floor, dropping the ball, interception passes and Tom James missing men outside him again. Treviso are poor they can't even scrum which used to be a strength.

Far more intensity and skill showed in the game last night.

Positives for the Blues, scrum improved over Ed game, flyhalf looks promising, Tovey's try, Roberts back but did not play great and Fish took some catching.

glamorganalun wrote:Just watched an advert on S4C of Preistland practicing funded by the WRU, he is a cert to be picked however bad he plays just like S Jones before him. Glad to note there are others that think Preistland is not our number 1 flyhalf by a long way.

Liked that advert, did you ? Guess where it was filmed ? Yes you've got it, Merthyr Tydfil, those arches that you saw him kick the ball over were the Pontstycill arches not far from where Crawshay was buried.

I hope Tovey and Biggar get a run in the AIs.

LordDowlais wrote:

glamorganalun wrote:Just watched an advert on S4C of Preistland practicing funded by the WRU, he is a cert to be picked however bad he plays just like S Jones before him. Glad to note there are others that think Preistland is not our number 1 flyhalf by a long way.

Liked that advert, did you ? Guess where it was filmed ? Yes you've got it, Merthyr Tydfil, those arches that you saw him kick the ball over were the Pontstycill arches not far from where Crawshay was buried.

Prefer if he kicked between the posts but a 30% success rate he need far more practice hopefully not playing for Wales.

bedfordwelsh wrote:I hope Tovey and Biggar get a run in the AIs.

I hope not

Tovey is a class act but he will need to play week in week out at 10 if he's going to be in contention for the AIs.

Looseheaded wrote:

Cari wrote:

Looseheaded wrote:I'd actually be more confident having Patchell start fro Wales than Priestland.
That's quite terrifying.

Behave! That boy's got a long way to go. I'd put Biggar in before Patchell.

So would I, but either of them above the Priest

Patchell has yet to do something Biggar has done often, bottle it. If Patchell keeps up this form then he's the find of the season. He is everything you want from a fly-half just as we are having some issues with that jersey. This is completely unexpected for me because I watched Patchell on the Sevens circuit and he didn't do very well.

Morgannwg wrote:

Looseheaded wrote:

Cari wrote:

Looseheaded wrote:I'd actually be more confident having Patchell start fro Wales than Priestland.
That's quite terrifying.

Behave! That boy's got a long way to go. I'd put Biggar in before Patchell.

So would I, but either of them above the Priest

Patchell has yet to do something Biggar has done often, bottle it. If Patchell keeps up this form then he's the find of the season. He is everything you want from a fly-half just as we are having some issues with that jersey. This is completely unexpected for me because I watched Patchell on the Sevens circuit and he didn't do very well.

Patchell also plays on the backline, another thing Biggar doesn't do.

gowales wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:I hope Tovey and Biggar get a run in the AIs.

I hope not

Well both Rhys P's are the ones I would like to see called up. The third will either be Biggar or Hook and i'm not confident in either of them. Tovey hasn't had enough match time yet. I thought he may be in danger of being the 'nearly man' until he came on yesterday and looked good.

Was that Treviso's first choice front 5? Benoit, Andy and Trevett seemed to have a field day in the scrums and in the loose. Still get a shudder when Scott Andrews comes on as a replacement though.

Morgannwg wrote:

gowales wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:I hope Tovey and Biggar get a run in the AIs.

I hope not

Well both Rhys P's are the ones I would like to see called up. The third will either be Biggar or Hook and i'm not confident in either of them. Tovey hasn't had enough match time yet. I thought he may be in danger of being the 'nearly man' until he came on yesterday and looked good.

Was that Treviso's first choice front 5? Benoit, Andy and Trevett seemed to have a field day in the scrums and in the loose. Still get a shudder when Scott Andrews comes on as a replacement though.

Patchell seems like an excellent prospect, but i think we'll have to see him in some more high pressure situations. If he was called up, i'd like to think it would be more for development and experience rather than playing him.

For the Ai's i'd have the Priest and Hook as the main 10's, and one of Biggar or Patchell if Howley goes for a larger squad.
Although by then Tovey could be starring in the HC for the Blues and Patchell could be back playing for Cardiff RFC!

I was looking through the Treviso team beforehand and it looked slighly weakened to me.

Patchell seemed to really get the backs moving, after watching Parks for years I had forgotten what that was like. I hope Patchell and Tovey make the H-Cup squad. Patchell seems to do everything Priest does, except he has pace, he can kick goals and he can tackle.

Morgannwg wrote:Patchell seemed to really get the backs moving, after watching Parks for years I had forgotten what that was like. I hope Patchell and Tovey make the H-Cup squad. Patchell seems to do everything Priest does, except he has pace, he can kick goals and he can tackle.

He also fizzes a great pass into touch ;-)

He's also ginger. I don't think he'd fit in to the Wales backline, you have to be very pretty in order to do so.

Things have obviously changed from the days of Neil Jenkins

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:

Morgannwg wrote:Patchell seemed to really get the backs moving, after watching Parks for years I had forgotten what that was like. I hope Patchell and Tovey make the H-Cup squad. Patchell seems to do everything Priest does, except he has pace, he can kick goals and he can tackle.

He also fizzes a great pass into touch ;-)

19 year old makes fairly minor, common mistake in 80minutes of rugby...stop the press!