Cardiff Blues Season Thread 2 - Rey Lee-Lo signs long term at centre

[wales606]

First topic message reminder :

Prop
Gethin Jenkins, Adam Jones, Taufa'ao Filise, Craig Mitchell, Sam Hobbs, Scott Andrews, Thomas Davies, Dillon Lewis

Hooker
Matthew Rees, Kristian Dacey, Marc Breeze, Rhys Williams, Ethan Lewis

2nd Row
Jarrad Hoeata, Filo Paulo, Lou Reed, Chris Dicomidis, Miles Normadale

Flanker
Sam Warburton, Josh Turnbull, Macauley Cook, Ellis Jenkins, Josh Navidi, Rory Watts-Jones, Jevon Groves, Ben Roach

Eight
Manoa Vosawai, Ieaun Jones

Scrum half
Tavis Knoyle, Lloyd Williams, Lewis Jones, Tomos Williams

Fly half
Rhys Patchell, Gareth Anscombe, Gareth Davies, Simon Humberstone, Jarrod Evans, Will Thomas

Centre
Cory Allen, Dafydd Hewitt, Gavin Evans, Richard Smith, Tom Pascoe, Adam Thomas, Garyn Smith (Ray Lee-Lo)

Wing
Alex Cuthbert, George Watkins, Lucas Amorisino, Harry Davies, Owen Jenkins, Chris Knight, Tom Williams (Tom James)

Full back
Joaquin Tuculet, Dan Fish, Geraint Walsh, Aled Summerhill

[LordDowlais]

Dan Fish only started playing 10 when he joined the blues, he played fly half as a youngster

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't no.10 and fly half the same position ? Or am I missing something. 

[Beard from Tad Cymru]

Dan Fish only started playing 10 when he joined the blues, he played fly half as a youngster

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't no.10 and fly half the same position ? Or am I missing something. 

Patchell doesn't think so....

[XR]

woops! meant 15. He played 10 through age grade

[Liam]

Sticking my kneck out here, mike Phillips will be a blues player by next week

[wales606]

Sticking my kneck out here, mike Phillips will be a blues player by next week

Wouldn't be too surprised

It looks like he is going to be given a central contract - Scarlets have SHs coming out of their ears, he won't want to go back to the O's by the sounds of it, and the Dragons have a fair amount of depth at 9

[Liam]

Let's just say it'll be confirmed Monday

[Coleman]

So we're not getting Iestyn Harris, we're not getting Mike Rayer. Who will be our backs coach come the end of the year?

[LordDowlais]

So we're not getting Iestyn Harris, we're not getting Mike Rayer. Who will be our backs coach come the end of the year?

Rob Howley ?

[wales606]

Team announced

Blues: 15 Dan Fish, 14 Tom Williams, 13 Richard Smith, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Gareth Davies, 9 Lewis Jones; 1 Tom Davies, 2 Kristian Dacey, 3 Benoit Bourrust, 4 Miles Normandale, 5 James Down, 6 Macauley Cook, 7 Thomas Young, 8 Andries Pretorius (c)

Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Taufa'ao Filise, 19 Luke Hamilton, 20 Rory Watts-Jones, 21 Alex Walker, 22 Simon Humberstone, 23 Gavin Evans

[LordDowlais]

Team announced

Blues: 15 Dan Fish, 14 Tom Williams, 13 Richard Smith, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Gareth Davies, 9 Lewis Jones; 1 Tom Davies, 2 Kristian Dacey, 3 Benoit Bourrust, 4 Miles Normandale, 5 James Down, 6 Macauley Cook, 7 Thomas Young, 8 Andries Pretorius (c)

Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Taufa'ao Filise, 19 Luke Hamilton, 20 Rory Watts-Jones, 21 Alex Walker, 22 Simon Humberstone, 23 Gavin Evans

Is it on tele ?

[wales606]

Don't think so

[Cardiff Dave]

Team announced

Blues: 15 Dan Fish, 14 Tom Williams, 13 Richard Smith, 12 Dafydd Hewitt, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Gareth Davies, 9 Lewis Jones; 1 Tom Davies, 2 Kristian Dacey, 3 Benoit Bourrust, 4 Miles Normandale, 5 James Down, 6 Macauley Cook, 7 Thomas Young, 8 Andries Pretorius (c)

Replacements: 16 Rhys Williams, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Taufa'ao Filise, 19 Luke Hamilton, 20 Rory Watts-Jones, 21 Alex Walker, 22 Simon Humberstone, 23 Gavin Evans

Ole to that.
Ponty fans won't be happy though I reckon.

[wales606]

 

[Cardiff Dave]

 

Aye Ponty fans pretty miffed obviously.
Humberstone to be our new OH acquisition maybe?

[Cardiff Dave]

Worcester's first "competitive" win of the season and bad luck Cardiff cobbled seconds.
Any idea why LV= continue to sponsor this competition?

[wales606]

More interesting/worrying than the result

McIntosh also revealed Blues would need to look at their fly half options with Gareth Davies limping off in the first half and Rhys Patchell also unavailable on international duty.

"We don't know until we access Gareth, but it didn't look too clever to be honest with the groin," he added.

"Rhys Patchell also has a shoulder knock at the moment and is struggling a touch, so the number ten position is a little vacant for us.

"Simon Humberstone filled in well today, but we need to address that and the Board and Phil will do that and see what options we have got.

"Simon is capable of stepping up, but he is not a full-time professional. He has a job so therefore he can only get better. He works hard and has great ethics.

"There is bedding in time and, in fairness to him, he has had about three training sessions and all of a sudden he is playing 50 plus minutes of rugby."

[Coleman]

I liked the look of Humberstone on friday to be fair. He did well for a man who had only been with the squad for a few mins and he stuck around for ages after the game signing and talking to fans. We'll need him for the next few LV games so he has a chance to prove him self. On a side note, some of our first up tackles were awful, and Tom Davies got destroyed in the scrum. Could really do with these players Tito and Holland have been looking at.

[wales606]

Bradley Davies is apparently moving to France at the end of the season

If confirmed, it is just a massive blow - he is a huge player in the pack and one of the few experienced young forwards we have - I think I would rather lose Warburton or Gethin.

 

[wales606]

Rumour in regards to the NZ trip for Holland

"Trip very fruitfull, have signed players for next season the only thing people are saying is a prop, 2nd Row, backrow, and 3 backs know one seems to know who or are not saying who but only that there is a bit of a "sit up and take note" factor on 2/3 of them"

Interesting if true, fairly reliable source too...

[wales606]

Meanwhile, Cory Hill has joined the Dragons.

[Jhamer25]

Meanwhile, Cory Hill has joined the Dragons.

Cory Allen signed for Mosley from the Blues didn't he

[wales606]

Meanwhile, Cory Hill has joined the Dragons.

Cory Allen signed for Mosley from the Blues didn't he

I hope not, he's our best centre! Don't think he'd make the Wales squad again.

Hill joined Mosley at the start of this season, he has now apparently joined the Dragons.

[Jhamer25]

Meanwhile, Cory Hill has joined the Dragons.

Cory Allen signed for Mosley from the Blues didn't he

I hope not, he's our best centre! Don't think he'd make the Wales squad again.

Hill joined Mosley at the start of this season, he has now apparently joined the Dragons.

Yeh sorry i meant Cory Hill  
Seen it on the WRU site, good for Dragons but i think the Blues just let him go. A good talent i've heard.

[Cardiff Dave]

Rumour in regards to the NZ trip for Holland

"Trip very fruitfull, have signed players for next season the only thing people are saying is a prop, 2nd Row, backrow, and 3 backs know one seems to know who or are not saying who but only that there is a bit of a "sit up and take note" factor on 2/3 of them"

Interesting if true, fairly reliable source too...

6 NWQ players, if that is the case, is indeed very interesting.

[Comfort]

Sam Norton-Knight would make me sit up and take note...

I reserve judgement until they are named  

[XR]

Again, another rumour on the armspark forum is a player with the initials "V.V". People are guessing victor vito but probably turn out to be his 3rd cousin Vernon knowing the blues!

[Coleman]

Are they all certain to be NWQ? Do we know of any potential WQ players playing in NZ? Scotland and Ireland seem to find players, maybe we can too. Rhys Llewellyn got a 7's cap didn't he? Be interesting to see who we get.

[Cardiff Dave]

Bradley Davies is apparently moving to France at the end of the season

If confirmed, it is just a massive blow - he is a huge player in the pack and one of the few experienced young forwards we have - I think I would rather lose Warburton or Gethin.

 

Surprised at this news, or am I? Not sure these days.

[Cardiff Dave]

Are they all certain to be NWQ? Do we know of any potential WQ players playing in NZ? Scotland and Ireland seem to find players, maybe we can too. Rhys Llewellyn got a 7's cap didn't he? Be interesting to see who we get.

Dunno and it's got me wondering we've knocked on the head, the WQ matchday quota thing.

[XR]

Unfortunately we cannot have both a successful side and one crammed with wales stars. I guess PT is choosing the first rather than the latter.

[Cardiff Dave]

Unfortunately we cannot have both a successful side and one crammed with wales stars. I guess PT is choosing the first rather than the latter.

That is how it appears to me and therefore I would be surprised if we break the bank to keep hold of Shove/Warbs/Cuthbert.

[XR]

Well we have cuthbert for another 2 years as he signed a 3 year deal but i agree about the other 2. Keep those 3 and shift on some deadwood elsewhere to make way for their contracts and the NWQ.

[Coleman]

PT would take a lump sum for Cuthbert's contract if an offer was made. How much more deadwood can we ship out before we don't have a team anymore? Seems like we're releasing 10/15 players at the end of each season at the moment.

[Cardiff Dave]

Well we have cuthbert for another 2 years as he signed a 3 year deal but i agree about the other 2. Keep those 3 and shift on some deadwood elsewhere to make way for their contracts and the NWQ.

Forgot Cuthbert had previously signed an extension.
Also, a question with regards to player release payment; will all 4 regions receive the same as before even though many other players will have left these shores?

[Cardiff Dave]

PT would take a lump sum for Cuthbert's contract if an offer was made. How much more deadwood can we ship out before we don't have a team anymore? Seems like we're releasing 10/15 players at the end of each season at the moment.

I believe PT would and I wouldn't blame him either.
I'm impressed with Exeter; 4th in the English prem, gave us a damn good thrashing and hardly an international player in sight, meaning continuity can be maintained throughout the season. We should copy them I reckon.

[rosbif]

Actually they had 4 internationals playing that day ,Mumms,Johnson,James and Vainikolo but their academy had 5 players in the U21 winning team and Ex players scored all the points for England

[Coleman]

Sam Hobbs as captain for the next game? Guess we'll never know what the coaches see in training.

[wales606]

Sam Hobbs as captain for the next game? Guess we'll never know what the coaches see in training.

Really?!

Not quite sure how that happened with Evans (vice-captain from last season), Cook (U20 captain) and Jenkins (U20s captain) in the team.

[Coleman]

My thoughts exactly. Guess the coaches must really like him or see something in him. Just wish he could bloody scrummage.

[wales606]

3 year contract extension for Cory Allen

http://www.cardiffblues.com/news/6623.php#.UoYH8cQ3iuI

Untill 2016/17

[XR]

Good work by the blues and holland. Tie him down now on a contract that would have cost significantly more if he gets more wales caps:thumbsup: 

[Coleman]

Good business by the Blues. Let's hope that he can develop in to the player we hope he can be!

[Cardiff Dave]

Good work by the blues and holland. Tie him down now on a contract that would have cost significantly more if he gets more wales caps:thumbsup: 

Ditto and let's hope we nail down a few more.
Money well spent and better than trying to match the mega bucks offers from the French re Shove and Warbs.

[Cardiff Dave]

Actually they had 4 internationals playing that day ,Mumms,Johnson,James and Vainikolo but their academy had 5 players in the U21 winning team and Ex players scored all the points for England

I should've stated "current" internationals, but i'll give you Johnson, the only Exeter player to make the original England AI squad I believe. Vainikolo too as I believe he is playing for Tonga this weekend. Not so sure Mumm is still involved internationally and our Tom didn't feature against us in the HEC. Injured I think. So in total, you can have 2 now count ours not forgetting 5 are Lions.....
http://www.espn.co.uk/heineken-cup-2013-14/rugby/match/191613.html

What i'm trying to get at is Cardiff are not a balanced team which aint good.

[Cardiff Dave]

Os 13 - 21 Cardiff Blues
http://www.espn.co.uk/anglo-welsh-cup-2013-14/rugby/match/190947.html

[Coleman]

Good win there, Dacey really impressing with his last few games. Could force his way in to the starting XV for the next HC games at this rate. Wish the away fans would stop asking if we've signed Andy Goode at hooker though.

[Cardiff Dave]

Good win there, Dacey really impressing with his last few games. Could force his way in to the starting XV for the next HC games at this rate. Wish the away fans would stop asking if we've signed Andy Goode at hooker though.

Ha. Away fans eh?
Anyway another name to nail down Mr Holland.

[Coleman]

Yeah we always seem to have them in the North Terrace, there was about 20/30 Italians when we played Treviso a few weeks ago and a good bunch of Wuzz fans last week too. Not saying we get hundreds, but we do get some.

[wales606]

Good win, pity about the Worcester loss last week but we still might have a shot at the knockout

Dacey is playing well, needs to work on his scrummaging though.

Good to see Humberstone getting some experience if he is going to end up as number 2.

[ScarletSpiderman]

Talk on the Scarlet grape vine is that Richard Kelly (lock) and Kirby Myhill (hooker) are heading to CAP on 2-3 month loans. Any news from the you boys on this, or is it just Turkish fear mongering?

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