Stade Sign Samo

Target Missed
By Andrew Collins
June 26 2006

The Blues have failed in theirbid to sign Radlike Samo, with the player moving to Stade Francais this week.

Cardiff's late bid to thwart the move didn't work, and now we're left with just 2 regional tested second rows.

The Blues have prviously been linked to Brent Cockbain, who, with the rise of youngsters Wyn Jones and Ian Evans, will become 3rd choice at the Ospreys, however, he opted to stay with the region, and now Dai Young is franticly searching for a new lock. More recently, Michael owen has reported to be a target, with the Dragons star capable of playing second row, however Dai moved swifly to deny the link.

Craig Quinnell's retirement means the squad will be missing a big ball carrier next season, and more importantly, only have Sidoli and Deiniol Jones who can cover the position.

Kort Schubert's regional future has still not been confirmed by the club, though being able to revert to second row, the Eagles captain could well be rewarded with a new contract.

I would personally like to see a move for Ian Gough of the Dragons. He's been in excelent form of late and would bring a bit of bite to our relatively frontless second rows. We need a player who can bully the big names at Munster and Leicester, much like Maama Molitika and xavier Rush did last year, but unless we find a real dogged player to support those two, I'm afraid we won't be able to compete.

cardiff's only other options are untested devlopment signed Bradley Davies, who captained the Welsh U19's to Grand Slam success, and James Goode, who is yet to really fulfill his potential that everyone expected 4 years ago.