Blues v Glasgow Warriors Sunday 21st October

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Blues v Glasgow Warriors
Sunday 21st October
Cardiff Arms Park
ko 15.15

Live on BT Sport

Well this group has just got interesting.

Sarries winning away probably not so surprising but the way they had to fight for it was and they paid a heavy toll in bodies to achieve their goal. Not even close to a bonus point either.

Glasgow on the other hand, while being please at going toe to toe with the English Champs, did not take their chances and for reasons best known to themselves, decided to forsake the chance of at least taking a point from the game by kicking some pretty straightforward penalties.

Blues surprised everyone by winning getting a very good away win in France and suggesting that hey have no intentions of being the group whipping boys. Lyon may not be giving the competition their full attention, but French teams are still usually vey hard to beat at home, so fair play to the Blues for achieving that.

So here we are second game in and Glasgow are pretty much facing sudden death already. Teams don't generally come back from losing the first two group games, especially when you still have away trips to France and Sarries to come. Probably fair to say that this is a must win game for Glasgow if they see themselves progressing in the comp. If Blues can go two from two straight off the bat, then surely they will fancy their chances going forward as well!

Both teams will be used to playing on the plastic pitches so no advantages there.

Both teams have traditionally liked playing fast and loose, but Glasgow look like they are trying to bring a bit of steel and pressure into their game as well, with only somewhat mixed results so far.

Recent form would suggest a Glasgow win, they have definitely had the edge in this fixture recently, but Blues have been strong in cup competitions recently and have a knack of getting up for big games. They also have the memory of bringing down Glasgow home and away last time we met in Europe, probably against expectations as well.

It is a hard game to call!

RDW_Scotland wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Also, it affected both teams - how would Glasgow have had any advantage from deliberately doing it?

Has anyone said that the other team had an advantage?  Have to admit I haven't read anything about it, only the link you just provided on your other post.  Sounds like Anscombe and the coach having a moan about it generally.  I'm sure some of the Glasgow players thought it was a bit ridiculous too!

A fair point. Anscome was certainly of the impression that Glasgow should have been the ones to resolve the issue (again despite not having a white strip)

"They told us it was down to the home team to change jerseys, but I don't think that's fair. Glasgow should have been wearing a white jersey."

It only would have required Glasgow to go back to Glasgow to retrieve the jerseys

RDW_Scotland wrote:For years at international level it has been the home team that has to change their kit - this isn't a new thing.

My main gripe with Anscome is he's moaning that Glasgow didn't wear their white strip - they don't have a white strip!

I wonder which team out of the two has a white alternative strip...

Good point.
Therefore Glasgow could've worn Cardiff's, mostly white, alternative kit I guess.
Sorted.

marty2086 wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:

The Oracle wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Also, it affected both teams - how would Glasgow have had any advantage from deliberately doing it?

Has anyone said that the other team had an advantage?  Have to admit I haven't read anything about it, only the link you just provided on your other post.  Sounds like Anscombe and the coach having a moan about it generally.  I'm sure some of the Glasgow players thought it was a bit ridiculous too!

A fair point. Anscome was certainly of the impression that Glasgow should have been the ones to resolve the issue (again despite not having a white strip)

"They told us it was down to the home team to change jerseys, but I don't think that's fair. Glasgow should have been wearing a white jersey."

It only would have required Glasgow to go back to Glasgow to retrieve the jerseys

When he says 'fair' I read that to be that he feels it's unfair that the home team needs to change their strip, rather than unfair advantage, etc. Sounds he doesn't know the etiquette. Maybe they do it differently in NZ.

Glasgow could have gone to the kit shop up the road and bought a load of Ospreys tops! Or Dragons tops, as they're probably on sale

Or why not do what we do in amateur rugby and turn the strips inside out?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Or why not do what we do in amateur rugby and turn the strips inside out?

Or play tops v 'skins'! The ladies would lap it up. And some of the men, of course.

When I was at school the sadistic PE teachers often made one side play in skins to distinguish, even in winter.

You'd be in jail for neglect and child cruelty if you did that today!

In some of the mudpools we had to play in as well, after 10 minutes you could hardly tell the shirts apart in any case. You could see that even at top amateur and international levels as well.

I remember playing in Jersey when I was a student (a great place to go on tour in those days due to no tax on booze) and literally getting stuck in the mud, the ball came my way and I could not even move my legs as I was up to my ankles in it. I just about managed to fall over. I am surprised we all survived that match!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Or why not do what we do in amateur rugby and turn the strips inside out?

I was going to propose that, as I had to do it last season. The lack of numbers didn’t present an issue, but maybe they were sensitive to not showing sponsors? I guess Codeserve didn’t mind in Risca Athletic’s case.

Sponsors definitely wouldn't have been happy - they pay their money for big exposure games like the champions cup.

RDW_Scotland wrote:For years at international level it has been the home team that has to change their kit - this isn't a new thing.

Just for clarity, it is an old tradition that the home side changes jerseys if there's a clash, not a rule or regulation. A tradition going back to the early touring sides, who to save money, only toured with one kit, relying on fair play of their opposition (ie the home side) to be able to make alternative kit available if there had been a clash. I remember once being on tour (late 70s) where the home side didn't have one alternative jersey, so played in a "mix match" of jerseys, as long as they where obviously different.

The problem in this case, thanks to the professional age, there was an alternative kit the blues could use (albeit it would have delayed kick off to get it) but it didn't have any sponsorship on it, and as such the Blues "refused" to consider it, not wanting to upset their sponsors.

BUT the blame lies clearly with the referee, as he could have (should have) insisted that Cardiff used that alternative kit, sponsorship or not. That way, the Blues management would not be accountable for the decision, hence sponsors have no come back. The referee has the authority to say, the game will not go ahead unless the Blues change their kit... He could have said the same to Glasgow, but common sense prevails, as it wasn't practical for them to do so.

I remember a world cup game between Fiji and the All Blacks, where there was a kit clash, as Fiji where in their traditional white jerseys, but the All Blacks decided to play in a very light Grey. I suspect the only reason would be to keep Adidas happy by wearing their alternative jersey at least once in the tournament.

Given that EPCR dictated what strips to use 2 weeks before the game I'd say the blame solely lies with them - it wasn't fair to put the ref in that situation!

Stupid question, but given that the Blue's away kit is white, do they not have a set of white strips with sponsors on it too? Or are there extra sponsors because it's the Champions Cup and they only put those on the home strip?

T answer the first point, apparently, the EPCR dont have the actual kits, just a computer image and its reported that the images didn't show an obvious clash. Whether thats true or just someone covering their ar$e as they didn't really check, I dont know. But I'm sure we've all seen computer images of something and in real life the colours are so different...

As for other kit. They did have access to the White kit, but it was "vanila" kit, with no sponsorship on it, which is why they where reluctant. Other kit that could have been used was Pro14 branded, and that wouldn't have gone down well either.

But I still say the Ref has the last word, as his word is law on the field and he could have made a call. A bigger "name" ref, may have had the bottle to make the call.

Speaking of the ref, has Luke Pearce had anything to say about the whole thing? He seemed to distinguish between the two shirts easily enough.

Twoseats has gone quiet...

RDW_Scotland wrote:Given that EPCR dictated what strips to use 2 weeks before the game I'd say the blame solely lies with them - it wasn't fair to put the ref in that situation!

Stupid question, but given that the Blue's away kit is white, do they not have a set of white strips with sponsors on it too? Or are there extra sponsors because it's the Champions Cup and they only put those on the home strip?

Cardiff had only one kit at the ground - the one approved by EPCR.

munkian wrote:Twoseats has gone quiet...

Wassup, Twonames? Dave, Trevor, whatever.

Who won?
It's history.
Get over it.
Move on.
What's going to change about this game now?

Anglobraveheart wrote:Who won?
It's history.
Get over it.
Move on.
What's going to change about this game now?

No one is complaining about the result, you simpleton. People are moaning at Cardiff for not changing their kit.

Better latch on to this game I guess, seeing as Scotland still can’t beat Wales.