Cardiff v Puff the magic dragon - Boxing Day

First topic message reminder :

Standing room only apparently. All seating sold.

dragon999 wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

dragon999 wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:Lets hope we can back it up and do the double on New Years Day, especially as I am home and going to watch it

I envisage the Drags catching and driving from their own 5m line and mauling their merry way to a try under the sticks. There we are then. Happy new year and all that.

   Puff the magic Dragon eh? - you must be a tad embarrased - As arrogant as Hammett

A typo quite obviously...
"Cardiff puff v The Magic Dragon - Boxing Day"
Fixed for you!

   Very good - i like that

Next Thursday, a different story I reckon. Well it blydi better be anyway.

It will be interesting to see what the citings from this game are. Land man, Gavin Evans may be sitting out the replay.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:It will be interesting to see what the citings from this game are.  Land man, Gavin Evans may be sitting out the replay.

not to mention Gethin Jenkins for the forearm to the Coombes head! - What did Landman do?

ScarletSpiderman wrote:It will be interesting to see what the citings from this game are.  Land man, Gavin Evans may be sitting out the replay.

That would be one way to help the Blues...

Looking forward to a Blues-centric assessment of the match on Scrum V later.

Didnt Landman 'forearm' Adam Jones?

I wouldn't have said that was anything worth citing. Wasn't he being held, or holding and they had a bit of handbags. I vaguely remember it, as I commented about Cuthbert being a big man and running in and tackling Landman with his back turned.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:Didnt Landman 'forearm' Adam Jones?

Landman pushed jones away because he was holding him,just like the blues centre did to Jack Dixon -
 didn't Gethin Jenkins forearm Andrew Coombes & lay him out?

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Looking forward to a Blues-centric assessment of the match on Scrum V later.

Yep. It again begs the question; why the heck is Phil Davies still involved in Welsh rugby? One of the worst coaches to come out of Wales and definitely comes across as one of our village idiots.

No scrum V later.

As much as I don't like Phil Davies, I'd probably still rather him on tv than pratpad Holley

Pratpad

That's the polite version

Risca Rev wrote:No scrum V later.

Glad about that, not that I watch it anymore. Awful show. I like the English highlights however, on ITV - more action, less pundits and no nonsense.

Apparently Blues will be boosted by Warburton vs Dragons

maestegmafia wrote:Apparently Blues will be boosted by Warburton vs Dragons

I have been really impressed with Navidi at No8, don't think Faletau is going to be fit which is a shame as would be good to see them go head to head.

[quote="The Saint"][quote="Luckless Pedestrian"]Looking forward to a Blues-centric assessment of the match on Scrum V later.[/quote]

Yep. It again begs the question; why the heck is Phil Davies still involved in Welsh rugby? One of the worst coaches to come out of Wales and definitely comes across as one of our village idiots. [/quote]

+1

Allty wrote:

The Saint wrote:

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Looking forward to a Blues-centric assessment of the match on Scrum V later.

Yep. It again begs the question; why the heck is Phil Davies still involved in Welsh rugby? One of the worst coaches to come out of Wales and definitely comes across as one of our village idiots.

+1

Agree why waste fees on this guy at least Hollnow with Bristol pinching good Ospreys players ready for the Aviva nest season. BBC should stick with M Williams or even G Thomas at least he talks sense.

Isn't Davies now involved with RGC on some level, god help them.

bedfordwelsh wrote:Isn't Davies now involved with RGC on some level, god help them.

Phil is a woeful top level professional coach, however I still think he does have a knack for encouraging people to reach for their potential (but has no clue on how to motivate them to stay there). RGC are the sort of 'project' that he could we be able to do something with. Mind you I did say that with the under 20s too.

Also I have to laugh at Scrum V Live, they always have Phil or Holley in the van looking at the technical stuff, and giving us their expert opinion, however both of them had to leave the regional game as they were not up to the job, and both of their replacements have don't far better too. So it seems ironic seeing Holley picking holes in the Ospreys, where Tandy has proven to be the better coach etc.

I enjoyed listening to Jonathan Thomas the other week. Thought he was a good pundit.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

bedfordwelsh wrote:Isn't Davies now involved with RGC on some level, god help them.

Phil is a woeful top level professional coach, however I still think he does have a knack for encouraging people to reach for their potential (but has no clue on how to motivate them to stay there).  RGC are the sort of 'project' that he could we be able to do something with.  Mind you I did say that with the under 20s too.

Also I have to laugh at Scrum V Live, they always have Phil or Holley in the van looking at the technical stuff, and giving us their expert opinion, however both of them had to leave the regional game as they were not up to the job, and both of their replacements have don't far better too.  So it seems ironic seeing Holley picking holes in the Ospreys, where Tandy has proven to be the better coach etc.

Then there's Derwyn on S4C.

I don't like Derwyn Jones as a pundit, mainly because he's the agent for half the players he's passing judgement on. I think it was wrong of S4C to have used him when the whole regions v WRU / Sam Warburton thing was at its height, considering his role. Deiniol Jones is okay. Dafydd Jones and Emyr Lewis are good. I don't know what's happened to Brynmor. Maybe they gave him the boot for having that terrible moustache.

I enjoyed listening to Jonathan Thomas the other week. Thought he was a good pundit

Same here. He also predicted the Dragons would win

Dragons team: Prydie, Pewtner, Morgan, Dixon, Amos, Tovey, Rees; Price, Dee, Harris, Coombs, Landman, Thomas, Cudd, Faletau

Cardiff Blues: 15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Richard Smith, 13 Cory Allen, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Lucas Amorosino, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Tavis Knoyle; 1 Gethin Jenkins (c), 2 Kristian Dacey, 3 Taufa'ao Filise, 4 Jarrad Hoeata, 5 Filo Paulo, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 Sam Warburton, 8 Josh Navidi

Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Adam Jones, 19 Macauley Cook, 20 Manoa Vosawai, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Gareth Davies, 23 Adam Thomas

Playing right into our hands with some of those selections.

Gavin Evans. . . 

^^^ one of the ones I was referring to! Are Hammer's hands tied? Surely he knows who his best players are, some of these guys are way off the mark.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/30623879

You'd think the Beeb might also have a few words from the Dragons' director of rugby, not just for balance but also because a) we're the home team, and b) we won the first match of the double-header.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/30623879

You'd think the Beeb might also have a few words from the Dragons' director of rugby, not just for balance but also because a) we're the home team, and b) we won the first match of the double-header.

Roger's boy up front - check.
"The Wales captain" - check.
"Wales wing" - check.
"Wales back-row back" - check.
Followed by a mention of the Drags and a bit more on the bloos - Czekaj.

So what's the prob?

Ref is an utter joke.

I have never seen such bad officiating at the scrum

and that is saying something

Tell Filise to learn how to scrum then. This weakness was even pointed pit before the game.

Awful refereeing, I am shocked the ref didn't give the Dragons a penalty at the end. Perhaps he finally realised all the c*ck ups he had made.

I don't normally criticise the ref, and when I do, it is normally for an individual decision, but that man should not be refereeing at this level.

You're right.

His decision not to yellow Filise was a total bottle job.

The officials decided the outcome of the game. Lines men are actually ment to contribute to the game. What happend at the last scrum?

dragon4life wrote:The officials decided the outcome of the game. Lines men are actually ment to contribute to the game. What happend at the last scrum?

The lines men did, they gave the Blues about half the penalties they got because the ref sure wasn't going to.

Risca Rev wrote:You're right.

His decision not to yellow Filise was a total bottle job.

The fact that the Blues were driving forward everytime the scrum actually happened (which to be fair, was only about 3 times...) Utter joke.

He also penalised the Blues at a scrum before the ball had been put in, which shouldn't be possible and penalised the Blues for a crooked feed then ignored the Dragons put in at the next scrum 2 second later.

Utter joke.

wales606 wrote:
He also penalised the Blues at a scrum before the ball had been put in, which shouldn't be possible and penalised the Blues for a crooked feed then ignored the Dragons put in at the next scrum 2 second later.

Utter joke.

To be fair the Blues put in was rolled straight to the second rows feet and is quite possibly the most crooked feed I have seen all season, while the Dragons one was actually vaguely straight.

Reffing of the scrum was terrible. Regardless of whether there were technical infringements, the ref has some discretion as to whether to blow up every time.

Otherwise, we get the kind of farce witnessed this afternoon

Any comment on Blues being too close to Jon Evans' tap penalty. Anyone? Anyone?

His cadence in his calls helped nobody. Far too big a gap. I thought the pause had been taken out.

In the T14 and AP two of the front rows would have been binned for constantly going to ground and not binding. Half the game time must have been taken up with scrums - well it felt like that

The game had its moments, but not many.

Cant believe we didn't follow up the away win again with a home win. Ref was shocking and something must be done about the standard as last week and this week they were very very poor.

I was threre. I thought the best team won. It was an awful game to watch though. 95% of the play was around the half way line. I just think the Blues cut our line more and created more opportunities than us. I don't think we threatened much and lived off scraps and penalties.

Not a great day down the Parade. Not much atmosphere either until the last 10

Likewise Griff as home for few days, after the away win I was surprised by how flat atmosphere was for long periods.

Yeah Bedford, it was a bit flat. If any game should have atmosphere then it should be Dragons v Blues. Was everyone hungover from NYE?! I shouted some anyway! But for me it hammered home the problems with this league. I just down think it means much to the players. We can talk all we want about how the sides in it are great (debatable, for any AP snoopers ) but I rarely see a 'fired up' performance from a Welsh side (disclaimer - non Welsh club sides deliberately not included to save offence). Even our derbies seem timid these days.

Not sure what the answer is. Better rugby I s'pose! Chicken and egg though in reality.

Couldn't go today, but yes the atmosphere was poor. I honestly thought it would be rocking after Boxing Day, but there you go.

Blues played the conditions better when against the wind. That's the big thing. Disappointed with a lot of things today, but then again as Dobbin Davey said, I guess we'd have taken 5 points from these two games in reality. Two pretty poor teams though.

Risca Rev wrote:Any comment on Blues being too close to Jon Evans' tap penalty. Anyone? Anyone?

His cadence in his calls helped nobody. Far too big a gap. I thought the pause had been taken out.

J

Should have been a penalty at very least - as the ref was so anti Blue apparently,Dragons should have had a penalty try & a yellow card given but got nothing, hey ho Jon Evans shouldn't have tried to be so positive & go for the try,Blues got away with it - thanks ref

And Tovey flapping the ball out of mid-air with one hand when the Blues had a 3 man overlap.

Referee calls it as a Blues scrum and then gives the Dragons a penalty.

That was a yellow card for most refs, and a clear penalty

Poor game all round. I thought Cardiff were the better team though and Newport didn't look anywhere near as good as the last match

wales606 wrote:And Tovey flapping the ball out of mid-air with one hand when the Blues had a 3 man overlap.

Referee calls it as a Blues scrum and then gives the Dragons a penalty.

That was a yellow card for most refs, and a clear penalty

That's open to interpretation. I wouldn't say he deliberately batted the ball down. I think he genuinely tried to catch it. There's no law against catching one handed, whereas there is for binding on the arm and not being the correct distance from a penalty.

How did Valley's Rugby get on Steff?