Blues 38 - 0 Airioni

Cardiff Blues eased to their biggest win in two-and-a-half years as the boot of Dan Parks inspired the Welshmen to a bonus-point Pro 12 victory over Aironi.

The league's top points-scorer kicked 16 points against the Pro 12's bottom side as the Blues cut loose in the second-half with a four-try demolition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/15844772.stm

6-0

parks will kick it if he gets it...

maestegmafia wrote:6-0

parks will kick it if he gets it...

Parks wins games, it's just not very pretty!

Another uninspiring performance by the blues

this is quite frustrating to watch.

the blues must get a try at some point, surely!!!!?

Frustrating? Try painful

Lack of cover for full back is worrying

aye painful

especially for czekaj

i think the blues would win more games without parks, and in a much more stylish way.

Tom james is not who i would have picked to mover to full back

The target ought to be a WBP, full strength or not. Blues have promptly wasted so much possession and territory like they did last week, not a try to show for their chances thus far is embarrassing.

There is such a thing as biding one's time and taking the ball to ground occasionally! Some ought to think before hurling the ball around randomly or passing as they call it

Not the best communication I've ever seen at the lineout.

try lualala... conversion missed in front of the posts

justified sinner wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:6-0

parks will kick it if he gets it...

Parks wins games, it's just not very pretty!

How and when...?

his only good performance was two years ago for scotland in cardiff.

What a rubbish game the blues should learn to catch the ball, poor skills maybe they should be issued with bags to hold the ball. Gavin Evans has gone backwards at the blues.

Good try by Hewitt through very weak tackling.

yes good try...

Hope they take Parks off very soon, so the blues can play some rugby...!

Good work by Rees, Evans, Trevit and try to Tom James

29-0

Cardiff are playing well but this Italian side are really poor

Yup evans has gone backwards so much at the blues

about time...!

I switched on at about 58 minutes and have seen 3 trys in 10 minutes - so im happy...

wales606:

you don't know how lucky you are

Can't complain with the end result, first half you most certainly can. For all his critics Parks kicked 6 from 7 and wasn't the sole spanner in the works when Blues were trying to run the ball. Some of the knock-ons made by others were truly shocking. Just be thankful SNK isn't still there working his magic

To be fair to Parks, he was excellent against Racing and was good against LI.

I think part of the blame must lie with Ritchie Rees, Parks best games this season have been with L.Williams at 9.

Also, I saw Hewitt got MOTM - im sure he must have more of those than Roberts for the Blues.

I hope Roberts can actually play like he did in the WC for the Blues - I didnt see him in the 17minutes he has played for us this season. :/

by the way, what happened to Czekaj?

It was an alright game. Rather than Cardiff being really good I think the reality is the Italian side was really really poor. Very disappointing.

And that game was so dead. I would look forward to the Blues going back to the arms park if they had the chance.

Agree JayMaster - the defending for the tries were awful and Aironi missed 2 straight foward pens and could easily have scored 2 tries

maestegmafia wrote:i think the blues would win more games without parks, and in a much more stylish way.

Sorry? We're 4 from 4 since he returned to the side as opposed to 3 from 6. Parks may not be everyone's cup of tea but since he's come back from the world cup, he's been in good form and keeps us in games when things are tight is actually showing he can 'get the backs moving' as some people claim he can't.

What a ridiculous statement, he is not the problem at the moment so just suck it up and actually give him credit for playing reasonably well.

gcBlues wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:i think the blues would win more games without parks, and in a much more stylish way.

Sorry? We're 4 from 4 since he returned to the side as opposed to 3 from 6. Parks may not be everyone's cup of tea but since he's come back from the world cup, he's been in good form and keeps us in games when things are tight is actually showing he can 'get the backs moving' as some people claim he can't.

What a ridiculous statement, he is not the problem at the moment so just suck it up and actually give him credit for playing reasonably well.

What is it with posters and damning statements with no factual basis

Desperate Dan is boring as f@@k and a defensive revolving door, but jeeze he can control a game and he wins you games

Even I knew he has a 100% record since he has returned from the WC, amd is actually not at fault with the stagnant Blues attack. its mostly the pack and specifically the awful service from the scrumhalf Rees

Facts before Sweeping Statements

gcBlues wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:i think the blues would win more games without parks, and in a much more stylish way.

Sorry? We're 4 from 4 since he returned to the side as opposed to 3 from 6. Parks may not be everyone's cup of tea but since he's come back from the world cup, he's been in good form and keeps us in games when things are tight is actually showing he can 'get the backs moving' as some people claim he can't.

What a ridiculous statement, he is not the problem at the moment so just suck it up and actually give him credit for playing reasonably well.

+1

As an outsider it seems to me that the Blues are winning whilst playing badly. I think that the coaches ate good down to earth guys. S4C commentators made a big play of Burnell squaring up to Parks in the half time dressing room and read a 'frank exchange of opinions' into their body language. However Parks looked much sharper second half although his place kicking went to pot! It's as if he can't concentrate on more tgan one thing at a time. He os not going to make breaks so the odd chip and chace and inside ball to a backrower to keep their defencive line honest is a must. I really rate Navidi, Patterson, Hewitt and Mustoe and thought they were the players that made the difference for you as they showed guts and skill in a tough patch of the game. Laulala was class coming on and tgere are good players in the wings to return. I'd play more of your sub front row. They were easily better scrummagers than your first choices. Yapp is too tall and you can't afford him and Filise in the same pack. I'd start Felise and Harkett(?) in Gethin Jenkins' absence. Down to earth coaches with down to earth forwards and classy backs. It's the way forward for the Blues.

Glas a du wrote:. I think that the coaches ate good down to earth guys.

Thats some diet!

parks is not a good player to watch but he did secure the win before cassey got the bonus point hunt underway.

if gavin is the answer, the question is the start of a bad joke.

i have never been a tom james fan so i am supprised i want to say that i thought he played really well. he looked twice the player yesterday.

Yeah, Tom James seem to have recovered the form from a few seasons back which is nice to see. It was also nice to see he slotted in to full back without many problems, a few years ago i would have told you that thought would worry me ¬_¬

Maybe he's finally maturing? He was probably not helped by the fact he used to car share with Andy Powell

Glas a du wrote:I'd play more of your sub front row. They were easily better scrummagers than your first choices. Yapp is too tall and you can't afford him and Filise in the same pack. I'd start Felise and Harkett(?) in Gethin Jenkins' absence.

I agree with that, although i would prefer Sam Hobbs to start over Trevett (or Harkett ).

Parks is a strage guy. I think he is sometimes afraid when his team has the ball in their own half. His natural sense is to kick the ball away, whether his team is moving forwards or not. I also question his understanding of what is going on around him. And, of course, he gets the yips. And those are his good qualities.

OK, I am being a bit facetious (only a little). But he has lost more matches for Scotland kicking away posession than he has won for them. But when he gets his confidence flowing, like yesyerday, he limits the kicking and can be a pretty good stand off. As an aside I am still not sure how/why I receivedthe S4C broadcast here in the US, but not complaining.

i am not overly impressed with the Blues. Airioni were pretty awful and the Blues took forever to get into an easy game to win. A massive part of that is because there were two Halfbacks who don't get involved with the game.

Parks relinquishes putting a mark on the match from Flyhalf, opting to kick for territory without looking to see if there is a better way to attack the opposition. He can't read the game. All Rees can do is pass, he has never shown anything better than that.

I dont expect Parks, or any other flyhalf, to attack the opposition willy nilly, like some mythical cross between the greatest highlights of Phill Bennet and Barry John but he needs to use the assets around him far more. Blues look good with ball in hand, going through phases, they were creating space for themselves, pressuring Airioni, committing defenders, pulling their defence out of shape, creating mismatches. Then Parks will receive the ball thinking nothing is on and leather it towards Airioni's corner flag.

He doesn't seem to be able to feel when he has the opposition on the ropes.

THough to be fair until the Blues find someone to compete for his place at fly-half then he is there to stay, the team and coaches now don't remember what it is like to have an alternative.

That Blues backline with a fly-half like Priestland would be magic.

Can't believe this, a Welsh team play and no compliants about the Ref, and it was an irish ref as well!

Beside that I don't see what the people have against Dan. Ok he isn't stylish, and won't win fans, but he is th epoor mans ROG, both have the same strengths and weaknesses.
RoG's style was good enough to get two h-cups for Munster. Dan's style is just the same, in a tight game he's the one you want kicking pens, scoreboard ticking over.

When Henson is fit, he'll play a running outhalf style, and Dan can play the kicking outhalf roll.

Meaning the Blues can choose horses for courses, and that is surly a good thing.

I see what you are saying comparing Dan Parks to Ronan O'Gara but to be fair that is a very generous comparison. Yes the style of play emulates O'Gara, but the game reading is not there.

O'Gara uses his boot as a weapon, Parks kicks to relieve pressure on himself. I agree a lot with what Dr Gray says above...


Congrats on getting s4C in america, I had it in NY once, made me very happy.

Kingshu wrote:Can't believe this, a Welsh team play and no compliants about the Ref, and it was an irish ref as well!

.

Well Kingshu I may be able to help you out there. I thought he was hopeless. He penalised Yapp for not binding but never once did he realise this was because the Aironi tighthead was binding on Yapp's arm and stopping him getting a bind. Once he made the Aironi guy scrummage properly then Yapp got the upperhand.

Bloody Irish refs

thats better, if it didn't happen, I'd be questioning the Natural Laws of the Universe.

or as Jane Austin would say

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a Welsh man after a game of rugby, must criticise the referee."

To be fair to Cardiff, theirs was quite a disjointed team missing most of their starting players.

It certainly showed in the first half - things werent clicking and they looked like they didnt normally play together.

Things were alot better in the 2nd half though, I like the under 21s number 7 and the young scrum half they brought on.

I thought things improved because Aironi tired and lost their shape defensively - the Blues had quite a lot of their senior players (Yapp, Filise, Tito, Molitika, Rees, Parks, T James) playing, so I don't think you can say it was as much a scratch side as the Scarlets and Dragons have been putting out recently - though admittedly their biggest stars, B Davies, Warbs, Roberts and Halfpenny were missing.

I thought their big problem was an absence of composure, with the backs trying to force things and silly knock ons coming all over the pitch. It's a good result having a TBP and not conceding but the performance was very lacking

Good point above I thought the ref deserve a mention, he was very good and tried to keep the game going which was difficult in the first half when the blues could not catch the ball.

Well done ref much much better than some ref's this season.

Smirnoffpriest wrote:I thought things improved because Aironi tired and lost their shape defensively - the Blues had quite a lot of their senior players (Yapp, Filise, Tito, Molitika, Rees, Parks, T James) playing, so I don't think you can say it was as much a scratch side as the Scarlets and Dragons have been putting out recently - though admittedly their biggest stars, B Davies, Warbs, Roberts and Halfpenny were missing.

I thought their big problem was an absence of composure, with the backs trying to force things and silly knock ons coming all over the pitch. It's a good result having a TBP and not conceding but the performance was very lacking

We were missing

1. Gethin Jenkins
2. Kristian Dacey
3. Scott Andrews
4. James Down
5. Bradley Davies
6. Andreus Pretorious
7. Sam Warburton
8. Xavier Rush

(thats pretty close to our entire 1st choice pack)

9. Lloyd Williams
10. ??? (Nicky Robinson )
11. Leigh Halfpenny
12. Gavin Henson
13. Jamie Roberts
14. Alex Cuthbert
15. Ben Blair (not that he will play again :/)

16.
17.
18. Rhys Williams
19. Deniol Jones
20. Martyn Williams
21. Rhys Downes (selectors fault :/)
22
23

I wouldn't say Dacey, Andrews or Down are in your 1st choice pack and Parks is most def your 1st choice 10, and Henson hasn't played a game for you and Blair hasn't played for you for a season (and a half?) and won't play for you again ( ) So you can't really say they are your 1st teamers either - all the others I listed (except the bench and Cuthbert - whose just breaking in to the side).

Whereas you compare that to the Scarlets side against the Ospreys -
Brackets players missing
15. Daniel Evans; (Stoddart, Fenby)
14. Liam Williams untested (North, Lee Williams)
13. Adam Warren untested (Maule)
12. Scott Williams (JD2)
11. Sean Lamont;
10. Stephen Jones, (Priestland)
9. Tavis Knoyle * on bench 4th choice SH whose played most games this year
1. Iestyn Thomas,
2. Matthew Rees (capt),
3. Rhys Thomas, (first game we could put out our full strength front row)
4. Dominic Day (Timani, Reed)
5. Damian Welch,
6. Aaron Shingler, (Edwards)
7. Rob McCusker, (Turnbull) *McCuskers 1st game back
8. Ben Morgan. (Murphy)

I'd say that side above is a lot more reliant on inexperienced youngsters - Day, Shingler, Morgan, S Williams, Warren, Liam Williams without the benefit of massively capped NWQ players (besides Lamont)