Challenge Cup Round 2: Cardiff Blues vs Harlequins, 19 November

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Cardiff Blues vs Harlequins
19 November 2015
KO: 19:45
BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park

Live on Sky Sports

Referee Alexandre Ruiz (France)
Touch Judge 1 Laurent Cardona (France)
Touch Judge 2 Arnaud Blondel (France)
Fourth Official Morgan Whitehead (Wales)
TMO Jean-Marie Piraveau (France)

Very quick break, so will need to update this post later, but here is a hub for the match between the Blues and the Quins on 19th November at Cardiff Arms Park.

Teams:

Cardiff Blues:
15 Blaine Scully
14 Alex Cuthbert,
13 Rey Lee-Lo,
12 Gavin Evans,
11 Tom James,
10 Rhys Patchell,
09 Lloyd Williams;

01 Gethin Jenkins (c),
02 Kristian Dacey,
03 Taufa'ao Filise,
04 Jarrad Hoeata,
05 James Down,
06 Ellis Jenkins,
07 Sam Warburton,
08 Josh Turnbull

16 Matthew Rees
17 Sam Hobbs
18 Dillon Lewis
19 Lou Reed
20 Manoa Vosawai
21 Tavis Knoyl
22 Jarrod Evans
23 Dan Fish

Harlequins
15. Ollie Lindsay-Hague
14. Charlie Walker
13. Matt Hopper
12. Harry Sloan
11. Tim Visser
10. Ben Botica
09. Karl Dickson

01. Mark Lambert
02. Rob Buchanan
03. Kyle Sinckler
04. Charlie Matthews
05. Sam Twomey
06. James Chisholm
07. Jack Clifford©
08. Nick Easter

16. Joe Gray
17. Joe Marler
18. Will Collier
19. Kieran Treadwell
20. Dave Ward
21. Danny Care
22. Winston Stanley
23. Tim Swiel

More to come. Quins team deliberately weaker as Robshaw and Brown and Nev not risked on artificial pitch, with the first two needing some rest and having some niggles and the last one has dodgy knees that do not like artificial pitches

It's going to take a full season of proper coaching and real recruitment to erase this soft touch culture at the blues.

It's been a constant over the last 4 years that Cardiff fans are looking forward to the next season by December and it's the same thing this year.

I don't blame Wilson for any result we get this season, the squad he has is 70% garbage and that lies at the door of the board and also macintosh & john for employing their mates from down the road.

The Blues have the players including 4 British Lions and some strong imports, but despite the change in coach their confidence seems to be paper thin. They should have beaten this pretty much second string Quins side comfortably, lots of work clearly left to do!

The Matthew Rees incident looked really bad, I don't think it was deliberate as he was not looking at where he was putting his feet, but clearly reckless. I suspect he will get a long ban, however no worse than the kick to Liam Williams head by England flanker Wood in the World Cup and that was judged only to be a retrospective yellow!

I see that our boy Timothy is settling in nicely:

yappysnap wrote:Good win for Quins. Tbp away is always a pleasure.

Easter and Ward both out standing, Ward for England no7?! Botica and Dickson both with games to forget.

Swiel next round?

Seagultaf wrote:The Blues have the players including 4 British Lions and some strong imports, but despite the change in coach their confidence seems to be paper thin. They should have beaten this pretty much second string Quins side comfortably, lots of work clearly left to do!

The Matthew Rees incident looked really bad, I don't think it was deliberate as he was not looking at where he was putting his feet, but clearly reckless. I suspect he will get a long ban, however no worse than the kick to Liam Williams head by England flanker Wood in the World Cup and that was judged only to be a retrospective yellow!

The foot came directly down rather than back (which is actually fortunate as a rake across the eyes would have done more damage) so it was a stamp and not proper rucking. Even if he wasn't looking, the movement was very much intentional.

There's no comparison with Wood, who was reckless but was actually kicking at the ball and had no way of knowing there would be a head anywhere near it.

The Blues looked very organised for the first 20 minutes or so but really lacked a killer instinct in the red zone, and once the game began to turn they lost focus and discipline.

Any news on Clifford and Chisholm? I heard the Clifford injury looked quite serious..

propdavid_london wrote:Any news on Clifford and Chisholm?  I heard the Clifford injury looked quite serious..

Clifford was KO'd in a tackle so the normal safety protocols were followed. He was apparently walking around by the end of the game so it looks like there was no neck damage. However, he'll have to follow the return to play protocols for concussion, and there's no predicting how long that will take. Could be fit for Exeter next week, could be out for a while.

I very much hope the former, as I want Eddie Jones to have a good look at him before the 6N!

Thanks Poorfour - Yes I agree, would be good for Eddie to have him involved in the EPS or Saxons squads.

Poorfour wrote:

Seagultaf wrote:The Blues have the players including 4 British Lions and some strong imports, but despite the change in coach their confidence seems to be paper thin. They should have beaten this pretty much second string Quins side comfortably, lots of work clearly left to do!

The Matthew Rees incident looked really bad, I don't think it was deliberate as he was not looking at where he was putting his feet, but clearly reckless. I suspect he will get a long ban, however no worse than the kick to Liam Williams head by England flanker Wood in the World Cup and that was judged only to be a retrospective yellow!

The foot came directly down rather than back (which is actually fortunate as a rake across the eyes would have done more damage) so it was a stamp and not proper rucking. Even if he wasn't looking, the movement was very much intentional.

There's no comparison with Wood, who was reckless but was actually kicking at the ball and had no way of knowing there would be a head anywhere near it.

The Blues looked very organised for the first 20 minutes or so but really lacked a killer instinct in the red zone, and once the game began to turn they lost focus and discipline.

I would have no arguments with Rees being banned for this offence, but I think that Woods kick to Liam Williams head was worse. neither Rees nor Wood were looking at where they were putting their feet, both were extremely dangerous play but Woods offence was likely to and did cause most damage. For justice to have been seen to have been done, both should have straight Red and both long bans (10 weeks). It will be interesting to see whether the trend of treating players from the smaller sides far more strictly than those from the big teams continues?