Tigers Claim Friendly Win
Tigers Claim Friendly Win
By Andrew Collins
August 23 2009
Leicester Tigers spoiled the Blues opening day celebrations as the English Champions claim a 14-5 victory at the Cardiff City Stadium.
The home side were lacking a large number of key players, including the 6 Lions call ups, Halfpenny, Powell, Martyn Williams, Tom Shanklin, Jamie Roberts and Gethin Jenkins, while Sam Norton-Knight, Tom James, Dafydd Hewitt, Ben Blair and Casey Laulala were also unavailable for the pre-season fixture.
With that large list missing, the Tigers were always going to present a formidable challenge, but credit to those who took part, they were certainly competitive right until the final whistle.
In truth, it was a poor match which had pre-season written all over it, but Dai Young will have been encouraged by his sides attitude, particularly in defence. There were a number of occasions when the Tigers looks certain to score, only be stopped by big, last ditch tackles.
Going forward, new centre Gavin Evans was a particular highlight. The former Scarlet man showed nice footwork and was always looking to be involved. Elsewhere Sam Warburton had a fine game, the youngster is looking more than ready to step into the huge shoes left by Martyn Williams. A mention is also worth giving for both Ceri Sweeney, who made a good impression in the first half, and new Acadamy signing, Andries Pretorius who looked a handful in the loose.
The Blues only points came in the 38th minute when Ceri Sweeney crossed in the far left corner. That had given the home side a 5-3 half time lead following Jeremy Staunton's early penalty attempt.
But despite the best efforts, the second half belonged to Leicester, who went on to win 14-5.
Cardiff Blues Squad
Backs: Chris Czekaj, Richard Mustoe, Dafydd James, Gavin Evans, Gareth Thomas, Ceri Sweeney, Dai Flanagan, Gareth Cooper, Richie Rees.
Forwards: Xavier Rush, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Sam Warburton, Maama Molitika, Andries Pretorius, Bradley Davies, Scott Morgan, Deiniol Jones, Paul Tito, T Rhys Thomas, Gareth Williams, Gary Powell, Darren Morris, Sam Hobbs, Taufa'ao Filise.
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There were good performances on the field, but only in patches and by a handful of players (Warburton and Bradley mentioned elsewhere), but how much training have we been doing in the close season? Hmmm....we need to turn up next week and get things going, to provide some sort of momentum to make sure the start to the league season doesn't turn out to be as disappointing.