Wasps name young side V Cardiff Blues & Young v Young!

Wasps side to play The Blues tomorrow night KO 7.30pm in Cardiff in the LV Cup.

Apparently Dai's son Thomas is in the Blues squad tomorrow so mixed emotions!

Jonah Holmes, Sam Jones, Tinus Du Plessis, Phil Swainston all start for the first time this season and will be hoping to make their mark in the coming weeks.

Lee Thomas and T Rhys Thomas are both named to start against their former Club.

On the bench, Matt Everard, Will Taylor and Nathan Morris will form part of the match-day squad for the first time this season.

London Wasps Academy youngster Dave Hughes (England U-18) is in line for
his first ever senior appearance for Wasps.

Young, who spent almost 10 years leading Cardiff Blues before joining Wasps said:

“It will be a bit strange going down there and playing against my old side, but once the game gets going it’s like any other. Cardiff are looking to get some momentum after a few losses and they’ll see this competition as a
good way to get that going again.”

London Wasps team to play Cardiff Blues at Cardiff Arms Park this Friday 9 November, KO 19:30pm.

15. Elliot Daly
14. Christian Wade
13. Chris Bell
12. Lee Thomas
11. Jack Wallace
10. Tommy Bell
9. Jonah Holmes
1. Simon McIntyre
2. T Rhys Thomas
3. Phil Swainston
4. James Cannon
5. Marco Wentzel (C)
6. Tinus Du Plessis
7. Sam Jones
8. Billy Vunipola
Replacements
16. Nathan Morris
17. Tim Payne
18. Will Taylor
19. Dave Hughes
20. Matt Everard
21. Charlie Davies
22. Tom Varndell
23. Hugo Southwell

Crikey...that IS a young team....

Apologies I was highlighting all the young players in the match day squad. Team amended as above.

So this weekend we will see two lots of Father V Son, as Nigel Davies (Glaws) will come up aginst his son (Sam, Ospreys) too.

Good to see that there are a few old head in the Wasps side too.

Cardiff Blues welcome David Young's London Wasps team to the Arms Park this Friday for the first LV=Cup match of the season


Speaking ahead of the game Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby Phil Davies said,
"The LV=Cup is a fresh competition so it's a fresh start for us."

"We have made a couple of changes to last weekend's team but it will be a mix of the squad we have now."

"We want to take the competition as seriously as possible and win enough games to make it through to the semi final."

"Without our internationals last weekend we saw some of the younger members of the Blues stepping up."

"I hope all of our players, when wearing a Blue shirt, run out with pride and passion."

"Dan Fish, Robin Copeland and Lou Reed are all showing their class on the field with Josh Navidi's captaincy style quietly driving the team forward."

"It was the perfect example of the boys stepping up and developing."

"I'm looking forward to meeting the London Wasps."

"Dai Young and myself have had a few head to heads over the years, but this one will be a bit more potent than most, being the first game in the LV=Cup."

"Both teams have something to prove."

"David did a great job here as a player and as a coach and it will be great to welcome him to the Arms Park."

"We don't want to make his visit too pleasant of course but with a few old boys coming back it will certainly add a bit of spice to this fixture."

Tickets for the Cardiff Blues v London Wasps, which kicks off at 7.30pm on Friday are available now online at www.cardiffblues.com/tickets starting at just £1 for under 16's

Cardiff Blues 15. Dan Fish 14. Tom Williams 13. Owen Williams 12. Gavin Evans 11.Tom James 10. Gareth Davies 9. Lewis Jones, 8. Robin Copeland 7. Josh Navidi (c) 6. Luke Hamilton 5. James Down 4. Lou Reed 3. Taufa'ao Filise 2. Rhys Williams 1. Sam Hobbs

Replacements:-

16. Marc Breeze 17. Nathan Trevett 18. Ryan Harford 19. Macauley Cook 20. Thomas Young 21. Rob Lewis 22. Ceri Sweeney 23. Dafydd Hewitt

Not a bad Blues team there. Copeland played well last weekend. Owen Williams shows a lot of promise as a 13.

15. Elliot Daly [20 years]
14. Christian Wade [21 years]
11. Jack Wallace [21 years]
10. Tommy Bell [19 years]
09. Jonah Holmes [20 years]
01. Simon McIntyre [21 years]
03. Phil Swainston [22 years]
04. James Cannon [24 years]
07. Sam Jones [20 years]
08. Billy Vunipola [20 years]
16. Nathan Morris [19 years] hooker
18. Will Taylor [21 years] prop
19. Dave Hughes [18 years] lock
20. Matt Everard [21 years] back row
21. Charlie Davies [22 years] scrum half

Thats more or less the Blues first team.

Fish, T & O Williams, Jones, Navidi, Hamilton, Cook, Young, Lewis are all around 21 I think, maybe a couple younger. Poor Blues team but it doesn't look bad lined up opposite that Wasps team. Dai will probably know how to beat his team well enough though.

That backrow did very well last week vs Munster. As did dan fish at fullback, he was looking full of promise.

maestegmafia wrote:That backrow did very well last week vs Munster. As did dan fish at fullback, he was looking full of promise.

Yes that's right & the back row are up against 2 bright young 20 year olds Sam Jones & Billy Vunipola both England U-20s & Tinus de Plessis who won MOM for Nimibia in 2011 WC match v Wales.

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:That backrow did very well last week vs Munster. As did dan fish at fullback, he was looking full of promise.

Yes that's right & the back row are up against 2 bright young 20 year olds Sam Jones & Billy Vunipola both England U-20s & Tinus de Plessis who won MOM for Nimibia in 2011 WC match v Wales.

Vunipola is a first team player, we have seen plenty of him. He is Toby Faletaus cousin the English Tongan. Amazed that he didn't get a call up for international honours this year? He must be the best option at eight for England after Morgan and Easter.

The are quite a few first team names in that team, great to see Dai Young applying a bit more youthful exuberance to Wasps.

maestegmafia wrote:

BigTrevsbigmac wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:That backrow did very well last week vs Munster. As did dan fish at fullback, he was looking full of promise.

Yes that's right & the back row are up against 2 bright young 20 year olds Sam Jones & Billy Vunipola both England U-20s & Tinus de Plessis who won MOM for Nimibia in 2011 WC match v Wales.

Vunipola is a first team player, we have seen plenty of him. He is Toby Faletaus cousin the English Tongan. Amazed that he didn't get a call up for international honours this year? He must be the best option at eight for England after Morgan and Easter.

The are quite a few first team names in that team, great to see Dai Young applying a bit more youthful exuberance to Wasps.

Billy's time will come I have no doubt. To be fair we have had to blood youngsters through necessity rather than choice because of all our injuries last year & we couldn't recruit players in the close season because of the uncertainty of the club in the close season. So we have a small squad.
the up side to that is that the young lads have like Billy,Sam Jones,Jack Wallace & Elliot Daly have had some good first team action.

MM

of interest to you will be Will Taylor who Dai brought in from the Ospreys he has been injured for a while but like a few of the other young lads it will be good to see them for the first time.

Good result for blues tonight.

Haven't seen the highlights yet Trev. But I'll keep an eye out for Taylor

Haven't seen the game but sounds like a good result for the Blues

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20253124