Cardiff Blues squad and off-field updates.

First topic message reminder :

It appears that the following players will be leaving the Blues at the end of the season


DEPARTURE

Gavin Henson - Sacked

TRThomas - Despite being given the captaincy a few times this season, Thomas is due to leave - He is one of the players who has been excellent for us, is available all year round and we should be building a team around him. But he is off to Wasps.

Gethin Jenkins - 1 of our 4 world class players is off to Toulon

Casey Laulaula - The second centre to go, he is off to Munster, despite being available all year round.

Dan Parks is off to Connacht

Ritchie Rees is going to Edinburgh

Deniol Jones is retired

Martyn Williams is retiring

Mamma Molitika is retiring

John Yapp is leaving to go to Edinburgh

Ben Blair has apparently been offered a contract in France, at Lyon and is leaving

Jamie Roberts will miss a large part of next season through injury

Paul Tito is retiring

Ryan Tyrell is returning to Australia

Xavier Rush has retired as a player due to injury

Justin Burnell has left with immediate effect

Richard Mustoe rumoured retirement



ARRIVING AND STAYING

Xavier Rush has become the next defence coach

Jason Tovey is the only new signing of any significance announced so far, from the Dragons

Robin Copeland is confirmed from Rotherham RFC - some good reports, a replacement for Molitika

Lou Reed is signing though from the Scarlets

And Gavin Evans has signed a new 2 year contract extension...woop

Benoit Bourrust a THP from Perpignan is arriving

Fijian LHP prop Campese Ma'afu has signed from Australian side West Harbour Pirates

Hooker Andi Kyriacou is being targeted from Ulster - confirmed

Ceri Sweeney is staying with the Blues with a contract extension

Fau Filise has signed a contract extension (Probably 1 year)

A new Director of Rugby Phil Davies has joined.

Alex Cuthbert has signed a 1 year extension

Rob Lewis confirmed coming at SH from London Welsh

Deniol Jones is now team manager

Lee Jarvis has been appointed skills coach


Squad for next season


Props
Sam Hobbs
Ma'afu Campese
Benoit Bourrust
Scott Andrews
Fau Filise
Ryan Hartford
Nathan Trevett
Thomas Davies

Hookers
Andy Kyricau
Kristian Dacey
Mark Breeze
Rhys Williams

Locks
Bradley Davies
Lou Reed
James Down
Cory Hill
McCauley Cook
Matthew Screech

Backrow
Michael Paterson
Robin Copeland
Sam Warburton
Josh Navidi
Andreus Pretorious
Ellis Jenkins
Thomas Young
Luke Hamilton


Scrum Halfs
Lloyd Williams
Rob Lewis
Lewis Jones

Fly Halfs
Jason Tovey
Ceri Sweeney
Rhys Patchell

Centres
Jamie Roberts
Daffydd Hewitt
Gavin Evans
Cory Allen
Owen Williams

Back 3
Alex Cuthbert
Tom James
Leigh Halfpenny
Dan Fish
Chris Czekaj
Harry Robinson

totally agree if cuthbert is not happy on 50k a year let the buggar off to france, and have faith in what is coming in behind him, the french model is unsustainable and then theyl all be dripping back to wales cap in hand,

these 'stars' were unknown 2-3 years ago and i truly believe we have more youngsters just like them who given a chance will do just as well, look at beck down at the ospreys, i think he will grab his chance with both hands in the summer with roberts injured and theres scot williams with him competing

at the scarlets theres the likes of liam williams and rhodri jones

the blues struggle because they always have bought in, maybe with 2-3 years focusing on their academy they can add to the likes of roberts halpenny et al. even if a few of them move on for more money, it just means that theres another welsh player playing top level rugby and another younsgter gets a chance

have faith in our young players i say and refuse to pay wages that will cripple the regions as businesses

Feckless Rogue while I think that some of that may work for Cardiff there are differences, while Leinster had problems with people seeing them as a Dublin team (play in Dublin and in Dublins county colours), there were always Leinster and represented Leinster, (some fans outside Dublin used to support Munster even).

What changed this was success as the Munster supporting Leinster people changed to the successfull team, also while they saw it as a dublin more than Leinster team this changed, but it would have been impossible to have them come on board if instead of being Leinster it was a promoted St Marys.

I doubt even a successful St Marys would have bought the outside dublin supporters in.

Therefore I feel that Cardiff Blues (promoted Cardiff RFC) can ever bring in the support numbers that a true regional team could.

Apparently Blair has been offered a contract in France,

and worryingly, apparently a french club have offered compensation to buy out Halfpenny's year left on his contract.

I guess it's Leighs choice then.

wales606 wrote:Apparently Blair has been offered a contract in France,

and worryingly, apparently a french club have offered compensation to buy out Halfpenny's year left on his contract.

Halfpenny offski too?
Got to be just a stirring rumour surely?

Cardiff Dave wrote:

wales606 wrote:Apparently Blair has been offered a contract in France,

and worryingly, apparently a french club have offered compensation to buy out Halfpenny's year left on his contract.

Halfpenny offski too?
Got to be just a stirring rumour surely?

This could start to get comical. I must congratulate the hierarchy at the Blues, for having the fortitude and courage to drag us from the triumph of the Amlin, just a couple of seasons ago, to mediocrity - and not satisfied with mediocrity - to drag us all into tragedy and now into farce.

What is the Blues backline going to consist of in August/September if all these rumoured to be leaving up sticks and actually go?

An under 21's side?

Fantastic news...Gavin Evans has signed a 2 year contract extension.

Also discussions on whether Baber and Burnell will be exiting

Possibly just people hoping, but fingers crossed.

wales606 wrote:Fantastic news...Gavin Evans has signed a 2 year contract extension.

Hey don't knock it. At least it's news of a player sticking around rather than leaving. Box ticked, job done.
By the way, overall I reckon we'll lose 12 players, recruit say 3 or 4 and promote the rest from the academy/Rags whether they are up to it or not.

FINALLY!!!

THE BLUES HAVE SIGNED A THP!

Apparently Benoit Bourrust is due to arrive from Perpignan, where he was the reserve THP. Yet to be confirmed, although his departure from Perpignan has been.

Again, this is just a one line post from some random french guy. I'll wait until it's made official.

gcBlues wrote:Again, this is just a one line post from some random french guy. I'll wait until it's made official.

There is also bits about him leaving perpignan on their websites.

wales606 wrote:

gcBlues wrote:Again, this is just a one line post from some random french guy. I'll wait until it's made official.

There is also bits about him leaving perpignan on their websites.

Yeah but I guess he could well be going to any other team in the rugby world. Fingers crossed that he does sign for you though, as things tend to seem less grim when you see people are incoming as well as outgoing.

If true then it's good news - but then how good can this guy really be if he's only a reserve prop for a team doing pretty poorly in the French leagues?

Hope he's good though.

Smirnoffpriest wrote:If true then it's good news - but then how good can this guy really be if he's only a reserve prop for a team doing pretty poorly in the French leagues?

Hope he's good though.

Well, Perpignan have a pretty good scrum, and any prop with a decent number of starts in the Top14 will be a decent scrummager - certainly better than Andrews or Filise.

He'll be better then Scott Andrews!

What is with the sudden hatred of Scott Andrews, a few seasons ago he was meant to be a real good prospect, and the possible future, when he got his first few games (and capped for Wales). The poor lad seems to have done a Cai Griffiths.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:What is with the sudden hatred of Scott Andrews, a few seasons ago he was meant to be a real good prospect, and the possible future, when he got his first few games (and capped for Wales). The poor lad seems to have done a Cai Griffiths.

His loose play is good, but his scrummaging has really let him down recently.

It's not really that sudden spider. It's just that more and more people are now realising what a lot of us already knew He is a really mediocre player and should have been playing in the RFU championship or Welsh prem full time to work on his scrummaging for the past 2/3 years.

Imo if he had gone through the English system he wouldn't have even got into a club academy

So who is going to replace Gethin Jenkins? It's a shame you couldn't hold onto him, he and that Perpignan prop had the potential to be an effective front row. I have no idea why Toulon feel the need to sign Gethin Jenkins when they already have Lewis-Roberts and some others.

Well Rhys Gill probably won't be heading back there in the next few years! I guess all they will have left is Sam Hobbs...

Actually i can see the logic in Toulon signing Gethin Morgs. Lewis-Roberts is heading back to Sale, they'll be back in the HC and they play a large amount of games, so rotation will be needed in the squad.

Sam Hobbs is the big hope at loose now for the Blues. Hes always looked good when playing, lets hope it isnt a false dawn. Insane that we didnt try harder to keep Yapp.

Yapp is god awful. That wasn't insane at all. Perhaps Blues should be handing out some starts to Hobbs right away.

If the Blues can afford him Duncan Jones would be a good signing i reckon.

Yapp is twice the player Andrews is. I think picking up Duncan would be a step in the right direction. Would he come though, seems happy watching the games with his kids.

Yapp being twice the player Andrews is doesn't make him a good player.

It makes him a better option then Andrews though, if one of them had to go. Why not keep the better of the two. Seems to make sense to me. I think Yapp is a good player any way. Did a hell of a job when he came on against Toulon in the Amlin final.

Yapp is awful I can't believe the blues have kept him for so long

I'd say Andrews has more potential and is only going to get better while he's probably at the same level (poor) as Yapp is now

Personally I always thought that Yapp suffered from being a good player, but not being as good as Gethin. As such he was shunted from loose to tight in order to get him playing, which seemed to back fire, and turned him into not really being anything but a bench expert.

Didnt realise that there was so much dislike of Yapp. He put a lot of time in to trying to switch to tight head. Wonder how young Jones will turn out at the Scarlets once they've tried to convert him.

Coleman wrote:Didnt realise that there was so much dislike of Yapp. He put a lot of time in to trying to switch to tight head. Wonder how young Jones will turn out at the Scarlets once they've tried to convert him.

Probably the same as Phil John and John Yapp, not sure where he is meant to play and what is expected of him. It does seem quite a harsh thing to do to a player once they have already made it as a match day player already.

It’s stupid, it pretty much like asking someone who has wrote with their right hand to start writing left handed. The guy (Rhodri Jones) is doing very well playing at loose, let him develop. I think the problem is, coaches see these dynamic loose heads, Gethin et al, and think “wouldn’t it be great if he could do all that and play on the tight.” It’s too much to ask, I played on the tight for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it was a different world. People expect too much out of props, scrimmaging is hard work.

They aren't going to convert Rhodri Jones anymore I don't think. It was an idea but Rhodri is much happier playing LH and I think the management are going to stick to that.

rugbydreamer wrote:They aren't going to convert Rhodri Jones anymore I don't think. It was an idea but Rhodri is much happier playing LH and I think the management are going to stick to that.

I hope that is true dreamer as it could seriosuly mess him about, what you said has made me relax a bit more though so cheers!

Coleman wrote:It makes him a better option then Andrews though, if one of them had to go. Why not keep the better of the two. Seems to make sense to me. I think Yapp is a good player any way. Did a hell of a job when he came on against Toulon in the Amlin final.

jeez, are you for real?

You seem to have a major gripe with Yapp. He is not a bad player. Not at all.

I have a gripe with you suggesting a club with the potential to sink into financial meltdown and be worse off than they already are keep hold of one of their worst players because you believe he is better than the guy on the other side of the scrum and because you think he did well when he came off the bench in an Amlin final 2 years ago.

Smirnoffpriest wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:They aren't going to convert Rhodri Jones anymore I don't think. It was an idea but Rhodri is much happier playing LH and I think the management are going to stick to that.

I hope that is true dreamer as it could seriosuly mess him about, what you said has made me relax a bit more though so cheers!

I'm trying to remember where I read/heard that they were going to leave him at LH.

I know there was an interview with Rhodri, where he said he enjoyed the challenge of TH but much preferred LH, but that he was just grateful for any opportunity to play.

It was after that though, am sure the management said something about sticking at LH. Will have a dig around after work and see if I can find anything....

Oh dear, you think my assumption is built on one game? It’s not. He has done well for the Blues for years now. Why keep someone that is not progressing over a tried and tested player.

Coleman wrote:Oh dear, you think my assumption is built on one game? It’s not. He has done well for the Blues for years now. Why keep someone that is not progressing over a tried and tested player.

I'm sorry but I'd say one of the Blues problems has been sticking with guys like Yapp & Deniol for years and thinking that they'd done well for the region - Yapp is a poor regional player and there are better out there.

Coleman wrote:Oh dear, you think my assumption is built on one game? It’s not. He has done well for the Blues for years now. Why keep someone that is not progressing over a tried and tested player.

I guess it all comes down to who wants to be paid more, and who has a contract that lasts longer etc. If Andrews is on less than Yapp i would make sense, the same as if Andrews has a year or so on his contract.

Smirnoffpriest wrote:

Coleman wrote:Oh dear, you think my assumption is built on one game? It’s not. He has done well for the Blues for years now. Why keep someone that is not progressing over a tried and tested player.

I'm sorry but I'd say one of the Blues problems has been sticking with guys like Yapp & Deniol for years and thinking that they'd done well for the region - Yapp is a poor regional player and there are better out there.

Smirnoff is right. And to answer your question it is because that tried & tested player hasn't been anywhere near good enough since you claim he came off the bench in the Amlin final and did amazing (which I do not remember btw).

John Yapp isnt a symbol of the Blues problems.

The blues problems have been at 10 since Nicky left, with terrible recruitment and too much money spent on journeymen. Parks was a short-fix (an expensive one) and all he fixed was the lack of sideburns in the team.

The Blues have had a poor scrummage for years, we used to have a backline that could work wonders with little possession and a flyhalf who could play any type of game and provided the backs with good ball. That applied with strong carriers in the back 5 of the pack meant the blues didnt necessarily need a strong scrummage.

As players have left, the Blues havent replaced them, or have replaced them with poor players, or stopped players leaving at the right time at their detriment (Rush plundering on while Delve is pulling up trees in Oz).

So many examples of individual players being poor to mention any of them as a problem themselves, the handling of the playing squad has been terrible.

The blues problems start at board-level and the money grabbing opportunity they took with CCS that backfired and lost them a lot of support.

The coaches are inexperienced, and rubbish, at first i was happy to give them more time to "grow into the role" but all theyve done is taken the blues backwards. No coach should come out after a heavy loss like this weekend and tell the fans to get used to that sort of performance.

That was the icing on the cake.

Theres so much more to talk about, but im just going to rant! As a blues supporter since the 'region' was formed (using the term region loosely) I feel bitterly disappointed with the board, the management and the decisions they've made which will cast its shadow on the Blues for seasons to come before anything can be done to fix any problems.

At least for this season we'll have a proper 10 and he'll be used to playing behind a pack going backwards.

Yes I do agree with everything you say there. However the point you made was that the Blues should have had held onto Yapp and gave poor, illinformed reasons for that. That is what I and others took issue with.

Morg, dont think I've ever said the Blues should have held onto him....

may have me and another poster confused..

Comfort wrote:John Yapp isnt a symbol of the Blues problems.

The blues problems have been at 10 since Nicky left, with terrible recruitment and too much money spent on journeymen . Parks was a short-fix (an expensive one) and all he fixed was the lack of sideburns in the team.

The Blues have had a poor scrummage for years, we used to have a backline that could work wonders with little possession and a flyhalf who could play any type of game and provided the backs with good ball. That applied with strong carriers in the back 5 of the pack meant the blues didnt necessarily need a strong scrummage.

As players have left, the Blues havent replaced them, or have replaced them with poor players, or stopped players leaving at the right time at their detriment (Rush plundering on while Delve is pulling up trees in Oz).

So many examples of individual players being poor to mention any of them as a problem themselves, the handling of the playing squad has been terrible.

The blues problems start at board-level and the money grabbing opportunity they took with CCS that backfired and lost them a lot of support.

The coaches are inexperienced, and rubbish, at first i was happy to give them more time to "grow into the role" but all theyve done is taken the blues backwards. No coach should come out after a heavy loss like this weekend and tell the fans to get used to that sort of performance.

That was the icing on the cake.

Theres so much more to talk about, but im just going to rant! As a blues supporter since the 'region' was formed (using the term region loosely) I feel bitterly disappointed with the board, the management and the decisions they've made which will cast its shadow on the Blues for seasons to come before anything can be done to fix any problems.

At least for this season we'll have a proper 10 and he'll be used to playing behind a pack going backwards.

I agree totally, my point was that the one of the main problems with the Blues (as well as the FH position) is the fact that they've relied on players who are too old/poor when they should have gotten rid of them - D Jones, Fiilse, Ma'am Moulitika, Snowden-Taylor, G Cooper, and even M Williams and Rush must be included - not replacing these (especially the ones on big contracts) and strengthening with good, keen young players (besides Andrews who hasn't really made the mark and this seasons locks) has meant that the Blues scrum has gotten steadily worse despite having Geth Jenkins, Bradley Davies, M Williams, S Warburton & Rush in the scrum all at the same time.

Of course now you have to add more problems onto that as well as the constant No 10 problem, you've got a team going backwards with a lot of the players getting too old and retiring or leaving, the youth hasn't been developed well enough to step in to cover all positions; a disillusioned fanbase who are boycotting the team and a disfunctioning team where the int players are being dragged down to the team's standard rather than lifting everybody up.

and then there's the coaches...

when you put it like that......