Glasgow vs Cardiff, 6th March 2016

Glasgow Warriors   vs Cardiff Blues  

Cardiff Blues beat Ulster 23-13 at BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park on Sunday, whilst away from home the Blues only victory in their last 13 trips in the Guinness PRO12 was 21-20 at Dragons on 27 December.

Glasgow have won their last nine fixtures with Blues in the PRO12 since the Welshmen's 26-15 victory at Firhill in February 2011.

The Blues most recent victory in Scotland came when they faced Edinburgh at Meggetland in April 2014.

At Scotstoun Stadium, 2.30pm. Live on BBC ALBA and S4C
Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU, 59th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Lloyd Linton, Dunx McClement (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: John Montgomery (SRU)
TMO: Iain Ramage (SRU)

25   Played 25
15   Wins   10
10   Losses 15
0    Draws  0
542 Points  465

Glasgow

15 Murchie
14 Jones
13 Bennett
12 Dunbar
11 Hughes
10 Weir
9  Pyrgos

1  Reid
2  Brown
3  Fagerson
4  Swinson
5  Peterson
6  Harley
7  Fusaro
8  Nakarawa

16 Malcolm
17 Yanny
18 Puafisi
19 Cummings
20 Favaro
21 Blair
22 Johnson
23 Bryce

Not available due to injury: Alex Allan (concussion), Adam Ashe (shoulder), Kevin Bryce (shoulder), Ryan Grant (arm), Tyrone Holmes (foot), Gregor Hunter (concussion), Pat MacArthur (glut / hamstring), Taqele Naiyaravoro (concussion), Fergus Scott (shoulder) and Richie Vernon (shoulder)

Cardiff

15 Patchell
14 Scully
13 Summerhill
12 Lee-Lo
11 Fish
10 Evans
9  Williams

1  Davies
2  Rees
3  Ma'afu
4  Hoeata
5  Down
6  Turnbull
7  Jenkins
8  Vosawai

16 E Lewis
17 Domachowski
18 Filise
19 M Cook
20 Navidi
21 L Jones
22 G Smith
23 Millard

Glasgow by 92

Thats a pretty strong looking Glasgow side during an international window.

Henry back at SH and Bennett and Dunbar playing together in the centre. You get the feeling that they are playing for the one spot in the Scotland team for next week.

S H-C may have to show some form for Edinburgh this week as well or his place on the bench may be in jepordy as well.

I just hope that the pitch is in a condition to let them play to their potential.

Think Glasgow to win with 5 points. Cardiff always prove stubborn however that is a huge Glasgow pack with a fast, fetcher 7 on the pitch and on the bench. The backs are a group trying to find form after injuries (Pyrgos, Dunbar, Bennett) that have a lot of quality. The crowd should be loud returning to Scotstoun after a while.

My only concern is Pyrgos, Blair or Johnson may have to step into 10 should Weir get injured. Hunter at least can play 10 at this level, not sure about the others.

Cardiff have a decent line-up. The back row is pretty good and that back 3 is dangerous. Summerhill at 13 has been in good try scoring form. Williams is handy at 9 and have not seen enough of Evans to judge him. In my view, Lee-Lo looked better playing in ITM/Super Rugby than at Cardiff (probably due to style). I do not rate their front 5 except for Hoeata based on what they have done in a Cardiff shirt (Filise has outplayed the celebrated Ma'afu)

No rain forecast for Sunday so looking for an expansive game on a crap pitch.

Good Glasgow side - should win this.

Swinson, Peterson, Harley and Naka all starting means a pretty meaty pack. Nice to see Dunbar/Bennett reunited, and pleased that Strauss isn't being used. Hopefully he'll be starting against France.

Thanks for doing the thread, Hazel.

Chunky pack, makeshift backline but the obvious thing to note is that Scotland's best centre combination for 10 years are back together again. Now they just need to remember that fact and get their fitness and fluency back. Dunbar looked better last week in the stodgy win against the Dragons but is still miles away from the prince he was and Bennett has been terribly flat by his standards. This is proof if anything that Duncan Taylor is tightening his grip on the 13 shirt for Scotland.

Blues always fight hard but I am hoping for at least 4 points here - we need to get that momentum back.

Am assuming Big Tacky is still not right after that bang to the head in the last match.

Has Nakarawa played 8 for Warriors before?

With Adam Ashe injured plus Wilson and Strauss likely being away for 6 Nations duty do Glasgow fans see any hope of Jason Hill getting an opportunity over the coming weeks or is he viewed as slightly of the standard needed?

Living in Edinburgh now, I've tried to follow Scottish Prem rugby over the last couple of season and have always heard good things about him. When he signed for Warriors I know many were excited to see how he got on but given his injury during the RWC period and depth in your back row he hasn't seemed able to get a look in sadly.

Cardiff Blues:
Rhys Patchell, Blaine Scully, Aled Summerhill, Rey Lee-Lo, Dan Fish; 10 Jarrod Evans, Tomos Williams; Thomas Davies, Matthew Rees (capt), Salesi Ma'afu, Jarrad Hoeata, James Down, Josh Turnbull, Ellis Jenkins, Manoa Vosawai.

Replacements: Ethan Lewis, Corey Domachowski, Taufa'ao Filise, Macauley Cook, Josh Navidi, Lewis Jones, Garyn Smith, Harri Millard.

That pitch is an absolute disgrace, can't wait to see Glasgow play on the artificial pitch next season.

It is not great, though probably better than at Newport last week!

Decent start by Glasgow though

Ref bottled that, it was a yellow all day!

Glasgow are playing with real pace, it could be a long afternoon for the Blues.

Jeez Bennett!

Bennett not doing his Scotland chances much good there!

Ohhh dear, Bennett. 2 hands on the ball please

Blues tackling is a joke, time for a clearout, at least Pratchell is off.

glamorganalun wrote:Blues tackling is a joke, time for a clearout, at least Pratchell is off.

Thats harsh, Patchell is one of the few Blues players who i always see giving his all.

Probably fair to say that Glasgow have had worst first halves. Playing with real pace and verve, looking really good.

Credit where it's due. The pixie took his try try well.

Dunbar subbed at half time. I think that means he plays for Scotland next week

Another cheap shot from cheap shot merchant Hoeata.

Naka has given away as much as he has taken this game. Far to many risky offloads

Lacking direction at the moment. Naka losing the ball far too often.

Ref getting twitchy about the result. Never a yellow. Can see what Lyn means abouf the refs in this league.

As a neutral that was never a yellow. Penalty sure, but not a card.

Yeah that was soft, overreaction from the ref.

What a great finish by Blues. Glasgow were a classy side. A bonus point loss is a good result

Feels like a loss, Nakarawa gave away the ball so many times in the 22 and Bennett was hardly mentioned in the second half.

That was truly a rubbish second half for the Warriors.

Very weird ending - well done to Cardiff for somehow getting 5 minutes of extra time and scoring the LBP try.

I only caught the last 10 minutes - did we blow a lot of try scoring chances?

Also, surely we stand more chance of winning these games if they're played at Rugby Park? The pitch looked like crapola at the end.

It was a bit of an anti climax and we definitely left a point behind. Well done Blues for sticking in there, but the whistle should have been blown a long time before that last try was scored. Still you make your own luck sometimes!

Hope that dropped bonus point doesn't come back to haunt Glasgow later in the season.

MacKnocked-on wrote:Hope that dropped bonus point doesn't come back to haunt Glasgow later in the season.

There have been a lot of things this year that may well come back to haunt Glasgow at the end of this season!

This game really showed the good, the bad, and the outrageously ugly from Glasgow.

In the first half there was some terrific defence and great play to move the ball accurately and effectively. Possibly the first 20 mins was the best rugby of all season. Also, Pyrgos showed he is at least Scotland's second best 9 and I thought Fusaro was better than Watson was for Edinburgh.

A lot of times play was forced and possession lost though. Nakarawa got turned over far too often. I also thought Bennett had a very quiet game by his standards.

Encouraging signs, but frustrating, simple errors are starting to really effect their league points.

Glasgow should really let Nakarawa go, 150k fee i have read, well worth it. Nakarawa has been losing the ball too much in contact and there has been no sign of improvement in that regard during the 3 seasons he has been at Glasgow.

glamorganalun wrote:Blues tackling is a joke, time for a clearout, at least Pratchell is off.

Check out CQ's comments on ChumV today.

Eejit wrote:That was truly a rubbish second half for the Warriors.

Not as rubbish as Cardiff's first half though shewerly. Even our new coach admitted it was the worst, to date.

Very odd seeing Glasgow drop a point like that. Still, good momentum with the Warriors at the moment.

Naka has been found out a bit especially after all those articles on him over the World Cup. Him and Strauss need to swap a bit. Strauss to start offloading more and Naka less. £150k (or euros) as a transfer fee would soften the blow. Glasgow can use that money to pay for the new pitch. Cummings and Davidson can take the mantle if a top quality lock is not available.

The game itself is a literal lost point thanks to Benett. That was embarassing. Hopefully it means nothing. Think he came back from injury too quickly. Played a lot this year.

Fagerson carried very well and put work in around the park but his scrummaging is not there. Puafisi came on and did a better job. Happy to see Puafisi improve so much. Hope it gives him a bit of a kick seeing Nel in Scotland training and Puafisi matching him in that department.

Weir played well but my MOTM is Pyrgos. If he is back to health, Price is his starter back-up for when he needs a break and Blair is the bench option every game. Don't know where Hart is left in all this.

Cardiff did well at the end and were flattered by the result. Getting a point was fortunate. They are going to miss Patchell next season as he is their best player (at least in the backs). Stronger at the scrum than I expected. They need a 3-4 more top players to be anything more than an also ran at this point. Jenkins plays as well (if not better) than Warburton in blue, Cuthbert needs a change of scenery and Anscombe seems to be injured a lot. They were not missing much from the Welsh group away. Think Cardiff need to stick with a coach for 3-4 seasons just to get some stability. Just looking around the league and looking at their squad, they are a 9th place side at the moment.

That was the worst 40 minutes (2nd) I have observed from The Warriors in 5 or 6 seasons. Cardiff were desperately poor and dragged us down (and past) their level. Toonie, unusually, quite angry on GMS this morning.

I thought Fozzie and Pudding Dunbar were both excellent while they were on: their performance tailed off once they left the pitch though.

Bennett was flying in the first half but very quiet in the second, but that shows how important Dunbar is in creating space for him. Also we were struggling to get turnovers with our two best jackals off the field.

Similarly, Meatball was looking very good in the first 40 but not really effective in the second 40. While Kaahdiff were starved of possession he dictated matters but when he was not getting front foot ball couldn't impose himself on the game.

Interestingly the Blues did what other teams have been trying to do to Naka; one man tackles him and the other runs into the offload space to his side. They stole a couple that way.

We should have put them to the sword but I think there was a collective easing off in the second half. If Kaahdiff had scored ten minutes earlier then we would have gone for the try to make the game safe and got the bonus point too.

p.s. Schiz will PM you.

VinceWLB wrote:Glasgow should really let Nakarawa go, 150k fee i have read, well worth it. Nakarawa has been losing the ball too much in contact and there has been no sign of improvement in that regard during the 3 seasons he has been at Glasgow.

Also several sublime pieces of skill leading to attacking opportunities. He will always knock some balls on - its a price worth paying for what he brings. I thought he was good in this match

Yes another depressing performance by a Pro 12 referee. If I may paraphrase our chorister friend in Geordieland, Deadly Dud is either totally incompetent or thoroughly crooked.