The Blame Game

Dai Young
By Andrew Collins
January 26 2006

I’ve just finished watching the game. What can I seriously write? I'm distraught. Instead, i'm going to look at where the blame lies for the Blues, and what's in store for us fans.

As a fan i refuse to analysing that. It was physically sickening to watch.

But my job as admin is to be fair and present arguaments rather than rant, that's for the messageboard. I will be as professional as I can, but I actually don’t know what to say. How can I possibly sum that 'game', because it certainly wasn’t a match.

Instead, I’m going to try and look at this as a journalist. See where the problems lie, play devils advocate a bit. The main point for this article is to get you thinking and debating.

Let’s start by looking at a few facts. We put out 10 internationals in our first fifteen. They included rugby’s first global superstar, 2 Lions and an all black number 8. Leeds had 2 Welsh rejects in their back row, including a player we released at the end of last season. They are bottom of the English premiership. So tell me, how did we lose 48-3?

Here’s another fact for you. The Blues have gone two successive games without scoring a single try.

Dai Young

Following that game, everyone would expect Dai to resign. There is simply no excuse. We came 3^rd in a group we were topping just 2 weeks ago. We ended up 8 points from top! 8 points!

It was genuinely depressing. I felt physically sick watching the Blues goes down like that.

But as we all await the impending resignation from Dai, Peter Thomas announces that Young’s job is safe.

“I'm certainly not going to get rid of him. We are damn lucky to have him. No-one works harder than him. We are very, very lucky to have someone like Dai Young.”

Later going on to say,

“He could walk out of the Blues and get into a top side in Europe anywhere.”

Well, I’m not sure about that. But we still awaited Dai’s own resignation, despite the charming comments from his boss. Until of course,

“'I’ve just got to get on with the job. I was looking for a reaction from my players [against Leeds], but I didn't get it. Two weeks ago I had taps on the back, this week I'll have knives in my back.”

Th fact of the matter is Dai has to be balmed, it's his team and his tactics. But is it his fault?

Looking at this from another angle, I genuinely feel for Dai. The guy is trying so hard to get it right, and I’ve done my best to stick with him and will him to success because I compare him to me. He is a fan coaching his favorite club. I just think if it was me, could I quit my dream job. He believes he can turn it round, and if nothing else he deserves credit for his sheer determination.

Howley and Webster
For me, Howley is to blame. He has ruined Mike Phillips and he has ruinned our backs. As defence coach, after conceding 7 tries to Englands bottom side how can you not resign? The backs have looked boring and one-dimensional, even when we had our winning streak it was down to the forwards. Going forward they look rubbish and defending they look worse.

In the last 2 games we've scored 0 and conceded 9. As for Phillips, Howley has got him doing the wasteful 'box-kicks' and unless we get a new backs coach in soon, Phillips will never fill his potential.

Webster is different, the fowards have improved under him in the last 2 years, although looking todays game, all thats down the pan. The lineouts were absymal and the forwards just didn't seem interested.

Peter Thomas
Surely, Peter Thomas has to take this into his hands. I don’t know if I could quit as Blues head coach, but as chairman, you have to let him go.

The one question I keep asking is how can he go to training Monday/Tuesday morning, look at those players and prepare them for their next game? It’s not just a case of back to the drawing board anymore. This is a serious problem.

At the end of the day, the buck stops here. The coach can fail, but its up to the chairman to install someone new.

The comments he made above are ridiculas and degrading to the fans. To say such things after that performance makes absoultely no sense and implys we have very little or no ambition.

Why spend hundreds of thousands on players, when we don't have a signle coach capable of winning games.

The Players
So, I’ve looked at Dai’s position, which includes the woeful coaching set up, and Peter Thomas’ role in this mess, but what about the players?

At what point does the player’s performance become the coach’s fault? To what degree is it Dai’s fault that Wales’ first choice hooker can’t throw in for example? Or that our scrum half is too hot headed to focus on the game, and gets involved in his own personal battle which he finds more important?

Yes, after that loss Dai’s tactics and set pieces were wrong, I make no bones about that. But those players are letting him down. He is working hard for them and they are giving nothing in return.

The only player who really looked like he was giving 150% was Jamie Robinson. He didn’t shine, but boy did he work hard. Even at 80+ minutes, he’s throwing everything he has into the mauls, because the forwards cant be bothered.

He went into 2 successive mauls on 80-82 minutes, and he cleared out more players than Deniol Jones did all match. I am clinging to Jamie as my only hope this evening, my only hope that Cardiff still means something in rugby. That’s why he is my idol. There was nothing he could do to change anything, we were 48-3 down, Leeds were literally laughing at us. But he still put every ounce into it.

His performance with the ball was limited by the lack of possession we had, but every time he got it he was looking to do something. In the first half, he was the only one with the bottle to attack from his 22. He didn’t play that well, but his commitment was the only thing I can possibly be thankful for.

The forwards didn’t want to be there. The internation ones have their mind on Wales, and the others have their mind on their pay cheque’s. Only Martyn Williams and Xavier Rush can take any sort of comfort from their performance, albeit very small.

Elsewhere, Lomu tried, but he always seemed to be trying for himself, rather than for the team. Jamie was working tierlessly and Czekaj looked desperate to get a hold of the ball, but everyone else was appalling.

Conclusion?
This is a real issue. Right now the Blues have the choice, to make a clean break while they have the players and resources available and start a fresh with a new coach, or alienate fans and put the Blues into the hands of a very poor coach who will keep trying his best.

The decision they make better be the right one.

This is a crisis, if we can't qualify from that group, in fact come 3rd, why don't we just give up and go into the Parker Pen. This is a serious comment. Perhaps we'd be better off in the lower tier competition. We'd stand some chance of winning we can spare ourselves the likes of Toulouse and Leicster.

It's going to be a huge month for Cardiff. I just feel that a new coach would be a new start and we could put all of this behind us. If we stick with Dai, you can't help but feel it's going to get worse.