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

[wales606]

Oh, and their is also Macauley Cook who Gatland is a fan of at 6...

[George Carlin]

Dan Fish and Aled Summerhill sound like hobbits.

[Coleman]

It's nice to have some depth at 6 and 7. I think Navidi will be starting at 7. He's one of the few players who puts it out there for the jesersy every game. We need him playing as often aswe can as Sam isnt the man he is for Wales for us. Jenkins and Cook will share the 6 shirt for this season.

[Scrumpy]

"Sam isnt the man he is for Wales for us."

Why is that?

[Coleman]

He's less intense, he misses tackles and he dosnt really lead by example. I always felt Roberts was the same as well. Also the fact he plays very few games. I respect that he wanted to stay in Cardiff. But until he has few good games for us in a row i'd rather see Josh. He doesnt let us down.

[LordDowlais]

He's less intense, he misses tackles and he dosnt really lead by example. I always felt Roberts was the same as well. Also the fact he plays very few games. I respect that he wanted to stay in Cardiff. But until he has few good games for us in a row i'd rather see Josh. He doesnt let us down.

+1

For whatever reason you never seem to see Sam Warburton in a Blue's jersey, yet come international time he somehow seems to be available, Navidi for me is the better regional player.

[Luckless Pedestrian]

Dan Fish and Aled Summerhill sound like hobbits.

There's a young centre coming through at the Dragons called Barney Nightingale.

[The Saint]

All the top players are included in tonight's squad for the Tigers friendly, bar the in-coming Kiwi's. Any fans have news on what either time will look like? And how the game will work? As I believe it is Leicester's 2nd of the night.

[broadlandboy]

Tigers game against Doncaster has been cancelled. Don't know if of interest but match will be on Radio Leicester on line

[wales606]

Tigers game against Doncaster has been cancelled. Don't know if of interest but match will be on Radio Leicester on line

Thanks for that, definitely worth a listen

[wales606]

All the top players are included in tonight's squad for the Tigers friendly, bar the in-coming Kiwi's. Any fans have news on what either time will look like? And how the game will work? As I believe it is Leicester's 2nd of the night.

No Gethin or Cuthbert

No Lou Reed either, but I think he is injured - we look weak in the second row atm.

No team announced, just the squad which I assume is everybody who went up for the training sessions as well (think they have been there 3 days now)

[Coleman]

We have Miles Normandale. Didn't see him much last season? Any idea if he's ready to kick on?

[broadlandboy]

Link for commentary on tonights match,even a Welsh accent(hope you have more success than some do understanding him)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/bbc_radio_leicester

[Welly]

1) Hobbs
2) Rees
3) Jones
4) Dicomidis
5) Paulo
6) Turnbull
7) Warburton
8) Vosawai
9) Williams
10) Patchell
11) Smith
12) Evans
13) Allen
14) Jenkins
15) Fish

[wales606]

Tiger 12 - 11 Blues at HT

The Blues have just changed the entire XV (bar Fish who's moved to the wing) for the second half - so I won't read much into.

Scrum was apparently stable with Rees and Adam

[wales606]

Although, the radio commentary seems to be saying Warburton and Patchell are still on...

[wales606]

Patchell drop goal, apparently he also set up the Blues try.

Tigers 12 - 14 Blues

[Welly]

Although, the radio commentary seems to be saying Warburton and Patchell are still on...

 Both just off.

[wales606]

Full time

Tigers 21 - 17 Blues

Not a bad effort against a strong Tigers team - we led 17 - 12 with 20 to go, but struggled against the Tigers replacements with our own starters off the field

[LondonTiger]

Tiger 12 - 11 Blues at HT

The Blues have just changed the entire XV (bar Fish who's moved to the wing) for the second half - so I won't read much into.

Scrum was apparently stable with Rees and Adam

Blues seemed to make minimal changes at half time. Most were made in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Adam Jones had a shocking 40 minutes. Won a penalty at the first scrum, but after that was going backwards at a rate of knots. Patchell looked good ball in hand, but flaky when kicking from hand and off the tee at times. Turnbull showed up well, but big Sam largely anonymous.

[The Saint]

You'd think they'd have had Warburton at least play for Cardiff RFC during pre-season. He's probably way off the pace atm.

[wales606]

You'd think they'd have had Warburton at least play for Cardiff RFC during pre-season. He's probably way off the pace atm.

He played against Leicester on Sunday!

He didn't play against Exeter but they never intended to play him against Exeter anyway.

[The Saint]

Yeah but I mean before that obvs... I can see they played Tigers on sunday, in fact I was commenting on the game earlier in this thread.

[wales606]

well he has been training with the squad all preseason and has played 50 minutes of our 2 preseason games - which is more than a lot of players and certainly more than gethin and cuthbert who have yet to feature.

Warburton has said he is in the best shape he has ever been in, so...

[The Saint]

Doesn't every player say that at the beginning of each season tho.... According to reports on here he was largely anon. Worry signs for the team Wales favourite, and perhaps harsh on the form of Turnbull and Navidi.

[wales606]

? he wasn't a dominant force in a pre season game coming back from months og injury. oh dear! Warburton has never performed fantastically week in week out for the blues anyway

[The Saint]

Yeah, hence why I said maybe some game time with Cardiff RFC at their pre-season (since he wasn't allowed to play for the Blues) and at the 7s may have done him good. I don't see how I wasn't clear in making this point...And yeah but that doesn't mean it's okay does it.

[wales606]

Yeah, hence why I said maybe some game time with Cardiff RFC at their pre-season (since he wasn't allowed to play for the Blues) and at the 7s may have done him good. I don't see how I wasn't clear in making this point...And yeah but that doesn't mean it's okay does it.

He was involved in the Blues entire pre-season and played the same about of gametime as he would have with an agreement 3 months ago - The chief had talked to Gatland and they had agreed that Sam could play against Leicester but not Exeter in the pre-season - they would never have played an international in both pre-season games in any case

Gethin and Cuthbert who played all the SA & 6N games haven't featured yet,

Adam and Turnball who had some involvement only played against Leicester as did Matthew Rees.

[The Saint]

It wasn't Gatland's decision. It was RRWs whether he would play or not, due to the rule they had in place at the time.

RE Gethin and Cuthbert, that's standard procedure for internationals who toured during the summer, because the season is a long one. Adam, Turnbull and Rees have played far less international rugby.

[wales606]

Warburton was on a wru central contract, gatland was ( and still is to some degree) able to decide how much Warburton plays. His discussion with the blues coaches was that is if the rrw wru deal was sorted before the friendlies that Warburton would be allowed to play against Leicester and not against Exeter. This is exactly what happened, Warburton preseason has not been affected at all by the Welsh deal

[The Saint]

This Italian TMO has been biased all game. He's now doing his best to see if Zebre have scored a try when they clearly haven't grounded it.

[Artful_Dodger]

Zebre No.8 Vunisa has been outstanding.

[glamorganalun]

Great try for Cuthbert but some of the tackling by the blues has been very poor, there is no way the blues left wing is going to make a tackle.

[wales606]

Rhys Patchell the only reason we are ahead in this game,

Powder puff forwards with no carrying while the backs are trying 1 pass too many too often.

Discipline is dire, we just need to get out with a win

[glamorganalun]

Come on ref get on with the game.

[glamorganalun]

This will be like the Scarlets letting slip a decent lead.

[The Saint]

I thought Cory Allen's hands would have improved by now.

[glamorganalun]

This game seems to be going forever even the last minute is dragging.

[glamorganalun]

The result is a big improvement over most recent games in Italy. Well done a win is a win.

[wales606]

Overall, a poor performance tbh,

But in the end it's a 5 - 0 points win

Last 30 minutes were an improvement and there was good spirit to hold Zebre out at the end and deny them a TBP,

However, the defence was very shaky throughout, two tries walked in down the blindside from scrums was dire - Josh Turnball had a very poor debut

Discipline was terrible, 2 yellow card and 13 penalties to Zebre's 5

Forwards were collectively poor - although set pieces were ok - they was nobody carrying ball and Josh Navidi did more on the floor in 15 minutes than Warburton and Turnball combined.

Back attack was good at time but they were trying too much in the middle 40

Patchell clear MOTM, his distribution in midfield was excellent and created a few tries - starting to see why the coaches are considering playing him at 12 on occasion when Anscombe arrives. Also, his 60+m penalty was awesome.

If we had just kept the ball better and tied in the Zebre forwards with some carries then we could have really smashed Zebre in the first half.

Matthew Rees needs to get his forwards working before they face Zebre next week.


Positives
Rhys Patchell & Lloyd Williams
TBP
Creativity
Decent set piece

Negatives
Defence
Carrying
Discipline and errors

[Newsilure]

Yes vey disappointed with the forwards, Paulo in particular was poor and apart from some of Warburton's tackling the backrow was non existent, both the new boys there failed to show anything. Patchell was good, passing, running and kicking, Lloyd was also good and Cuthbert as keen to be involved as always. Young Jenkins on the wing looks promising but his defensive positioning was poor... where is Watkins I thought he was the new hope on the wing?

[XR]

first game of the season with a new head coach, several new forwards and adapting to a different style and culture...bonus point win.

That'll do for me.

[Coleman]

A win is a win and Zebre hadnt lost in four home games leading in to this game (or i think that is what was said) so we shouldnt dismiss them easily. Adam looked tired very quickly, he needs to really get his cardio sorted if he's going to make our squad let alone the Welsh WC squad. Filo had a shocker. I thought Dico played well but he likes to hang around in the wing a little too often. Warbs did alright but Turnbull was pretty quiet. I hope he find that form from last year. We need to work on our blind side defence off of scrums. They scored with that same basic 8 pick up and pass to 9 play twice.

Glasgow will be tough, but i think we can win it. Still hoping for 3/3.

[The Saint]

There is a lot things to improve upon, but if I'm honest Blues looked like they had a lot more left in the tank. Man for man they also looked a class above the opposition. Apart from Hobbs, that guy is absolutely useless and a danger to his own team.

[Coleman]

I've given up moaning about Hobbs. I honestly will never understand what he is doing playing pro rugby. He's had four years to prove himself now and continues to be gash. The fact that he's captained the side is bizzare. He must move mountains in training.

[George Carlin]

https://www.606v2.com/t55496-cardiff-blues-v-glasgow-warriors-14-september

[Guest]

What are the odds of playing Anscombe at 13 outside Allen, or even at 12?

I think Patchell should stick at 10, he is developing nicely there, though I do think he has the skillset to play 12 and he did pretty well there against Glasgow last year in the HC.

The backline on Sunday wasn't firing as well as it could have and I think it needs a shake up, mainly in the centre.

[Coleman]

I get the feeling that Patch is going to get moved out. If Gatland really does see Anscombe as the future 10 for Wales then i worry for Patchell. He could become another Hook. Talented but to versatile for his own good. We should have signed a center to play with Allen or at least be looking to blood another player from the academy. Simple fact is that Evans is a poor player. Why has Hammer picked him? Richard Smith is a much better player but he's sat getting splinters in his arse watching Evans murder any decent attacking ball we have.

[XR]

GA won't go to 13, he doesn't play there. It's either 10 or 15 for him.

[Guest]

I hope Patchell doesnt move far from midfield, hes not a great fullback. As for Anscombe, I see him more as a utility because I dont think hes a great 10. But I guess we'll see.

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