Blues to Banish Zebre Demons?

Celebrating post-Toulon
By Andrew Collins
November 1 2013

Phil Davies and his Cardiff Blues squad have the chance to right the wrongs of their defeat to Zebre last month, as they take on Treviso in a massive must-win match.

October was a bizarre and eventful month for the Cardiff Blues, even by Welsh rugby’ standards. We entered it off the back of an embarrassing home defeat to Italian side Zebre and then an expected hammering away at Leinster. Things, it’s fair to say, were all a bit doom and gloom when Edinburgh came to visit on the 6^th.

It was exactly the sort of fixture we could’ve done without, prior to the opening weekend of the Heineken Cup. The league’s basement team dug uncomfortably deep into the artificial turf and refused to lie down as they had in several earlier fixtures. For a 10 minute spell at the start of the 2^nd half, it felt like it was going to be one of those dark days again. But, credit where it’s due, the home side won a fairly ugly arm wrestle an eventually ran out comfortable winners. Perhaps we were being too harsh on the coaches, and indeed things were going in the right direction…

Flash forward a week and the boys were 4 tries down in a half an hour of hell against the grafting but superstar-less Exeter Chiefs. A surreal second half, in which Exeter went down to 13 men, saw the Blues claim an unlikely 4-try bonus point, but the damage had already been done. It was one of those landslide moments; something had to give.

And give it did, in the form of defensive coach Rob Powell. Having conceded an average of 25 points per match, and indeed in fairly pathetic fashion, his position became untenable. Dale McIntosh was brought in almost overnight, although he wouldn’t start work until after Toulon’s visit. Things hadn’t been this bad since the 40-3 Heineken Cup loss to, ironically, Phil Davies’ Leeds Tykes in 2006.

And then this happened…

Cardiff Blues 19 Toulon 15

It was the sort of match you see in a movie. The home side fielded the youngest back line in its history, while Toulon brought experience in abundance; Jonny Wilkinson, Matt Giteau, Delon Armatidge. And in a match full of international talent, featuring several British Lions, old and new, and multi-cap New Zealanders, it was fitting that an uncapped local boy stole the show. Gareth Davies’ try will stay in the folk law of this club for many, many years alongside those Gloucester games, that match against Leicester and of course, the Amlin Challenge Cup win over Toulon.

The following week, it was back to reality; beaten by a strong Ulster side who, after a poor start to the season, have started to find their form. That said, it was another 5 try defeat conceding 39 points in the process.

Looking back at the results from the past 2 months, it’s difficult to see where we are as a squad. Sandwiched amongst the drubbings and narrow victories, there have been some scintillating tries, some memorable moments of individual brilliance, a number of gutsy performances and certainly a lot of effort; we’ve shown the potential to be a top team, and potential to finish bottom of the league.

And while all this was going on in the bubble of the Arms Park, the rest of European rugby has also been having a meltdown. Until very recently, that meltdown was just bubbling away in the background and would eventually resolve itself, but as that resolution becomes clearer, so does the possibility of not playing top tier European rugby. ERC have announced a change in the qualification structure for the Heineken Cup – similar to those which are also expected to be announced by Champions Cup organisers shortly - and this new structure sees just 7 teams qualify from the Pro 12. These spots are based on merit, but with the proviso that at least 1 team from each of the league’s 4 nations must qualify. In all likelihood, this means that unless Treviso or Zebre get into the top 7, it will be just the top 6 places who qualify for the top tier competition, whatever that cup is called. As things stand, we will not qualify.

So as Treviso come to town on Saturday, it has never been more important to get a victory. With momentum a distant memory, and the Zebre debacle still so raw, the Blues have a chance to banish their demons, get the league campaign back on track and start to reach their true potential.

Josh Navidi leads a much-changed side following a large number of call ups to the Welsh squad.

D Fish, T Williams, R Smith, D Hewitt, C Czekaj; G Davies, L Jones: S Hobbs, K Dacey, T Filise; L Reed, F Paulo; A Pretorius, J Navidi (C), R Copeland.

Replacements: M Breeze, T Davies, B Bourrust, J Down, R Watts-Jones; A Walker, A Summerhill, H Robinson.