Cardiff Blues v Glasgow Warriors, 15 February

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Cardiff Blues v Glasgow Warriors

15 February 2014
The Arms Park, Cardiff
KO: 6.30pm.

Live on S4C/BBC ALBA

Referee: George Clancy (IRFU, 58th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Sean Brickell, Martyn Lewis (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: Richard Gwynn (WRU)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (WRU)

A. Previous Meetings

13/12/13 Glasgow Warriors 7 - 9 Cardiff Blues  
6/12/13 Cardiff Blues 29 - 20 Glasgow Warriors  
6/9/13 Glasgow Warriors 22 - 15 Cardiff Blues

B. Form:

1	Munster	13	11	0	2	323	201	4	48
2	Leinster	13	9	1	3	294	203	7	45
3	Ulster	13	9	0	4	254	177	5	41
4	Ospreys	13	8	1	4	300	226	6	40
5	Glasgow	11	9	0	2	177	148	1	37
6	Scarlets	13	5	1	7	240	259	6	28
7	NG Dragons	12	5	0	7	209	210	4	24
8	Edinburgh	11	5	0	6	202	255	2	22
9	Cardiff Blues	13	4	1	8	253	328	4	22

C. Teams:

1. Blues
15 Dan Fish
14 Richard Smith
13 Isaia Tuifua
12 Dafydd Hewitt
11 Harry Robinson
10 Simon Humberstone

9 Lloyd Williams
1 Gethin Jenkins (c)
2 Kristian Dacey
3 Scott Andrews
4 Macauley Cook
5 Filo Paulo
6 Ellis Jenkins
7 Sam Warburton
8 Robin Copeland

Replacements:
16 Rhys Williams,
17 Sam Hobbs,
18 Patrick Palmer,
19 James Down,
20 Rory Watts-Jones,
21 Lewis Jones,
22 Gareth Davies,
23 Tom Williams

2. Warriors
15. Niko Matawalu
14. Lee Jones
13. Richie Vernon
12. Mark Bennett
11. Rory Hughes
10. Ruaridh Jackson
9. Henry Pyrgos

1. Gordon Reid
2. Pat MacArthur
3. Ed Kalman
4. Leone Nakarawa
5. Tom Ryder
6. Rob Harley
7. Tyrone Holmes
8. Josh Strauss (Captain)

Substitutes

16. Dougie Hall
17. Jerry Yanuyanutawa
18. Jon Welsh
19. Jonny Gray
20. James Eddie
21. Chris Cusiter
22. Finn Russell
23. Folau Niua

Match Preview:

Cardiff Blues only victory in their last six RaboDirect PRO12 fixtures was 21-13 at home to the Dragons on New Year's Day.

The Blues have won their last three fixtures against Scottish opponents in all tournaments.
Glasgow Warriors have won their last three matches in the PRO12 since their 8-23 home defeat by the Dragons on 22 November.

The Warriors have won all six away games thy have played in the tournament this season.

The Blues have won both their recent meetings with the Warriors, home and away in the European Cup in December; however in the PRO12 it is a different story with Glasgow taking the last fire encounters since their 15-26 defeat at Firhill in February 2011.

It's his ability to ride tackles that makes Naka such a force to be reckoned with. He just absorbs the tackle, keeping his hands free, and he never just takes contact without scoping the possibility of keeping the ball alive. Like Matawalu he can often go too far, but it's so exciting and refreshing to see players play heads-up rugby and ignore the script.

Denton could learn alot from those two. He has the pace, power and athleticism to be a great number 8, but he thinks the game is won by putting as much power into the collision as possible, whereas sometime a more subtle approach can be far more effective.

Kieran Read and Sergio Parisse are probably the best two international 8's on the circuit, and whilst both have power in spades, what marks them our is their ability to produce soft hands in the heat of the battle and shift the point of attack. Billy Vunipola also managed some great offloads against Scotland. We were busy trying to smash him into next Christmas, and yet he just took the hit and slipped the ball out the back door. Class.

Captain_Sensible wrote:

Nematode wrote:Edinburgh Rugby Twitter with a trio signing for those interested

https://twitter.com/EdinburghRugby/with_replies

Interesting. Good to have more depth at prop for both Scotland and Embra. The SA laddie looks handy.

2 tightheads and a 10! Can you believe it?   

Take a bow, Sean Lineen.

Bergham looks a unit. The utility back looks Lee Jones-ickle (14 stones, 5'9") but he must have some skills.

VinceWLB wrote:Morray Low moving isn't that big a loss with the recent news that big Mike Cusack is coming back.

That said it is a loss as it means Jon Welsh isn't coming back to loosehead..

No problem. If there's a god in heaven, it should be announced fairly soon that there's a new loosehead in town called Ross Ford.

Edinburgh front row next season:

1.Ford 2.McInally 3.Atiga

George Carlin wrote:

VinceWLB wrote:Morray Low moving isn't that big a loss with the recent news that big Mike Cusack is coming back.

That said it is a loss as it means Jon Welsh isn't coming back to loosehead..

No problem. If there's a god in heaven, it should be announced fairly soon that there's a new loosehead in town called Ross Ford.

Haven't you heard? SJ is calling another positional change and he's moving to SH.