Cardiff Blues vs Ospreys, Cardiff Arms Park

[RC]

<div align="center"> vs Ospreys

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Always a great welsh derby to watch and the two teams are beginning to dslike each other the more they play one another.
Home advantage always seems to be a big factor as both teams always seem to take them game on home soil, but Ospreys will be looking to get one up on the Blues again. The Ospreys shrugged off Cardiff in the EDF semi-final last year 27-10 and considering they won the league with the last game of the season Cardiff will be looking for some revenge.
The game will not be a pretty one. Cardiff are looking to break Leinsters record with 15 consecutive home wins, but Ospreys are also looking to keep their record going of having never lost an opening fixture game.

Ospreys, however, are missing 13 key players - 11 to the Welsh squad, Nikki Walker to Scotland and Ryan Jones is out long term. Justin Marshall is looking doubtful, with Martyn Williams on stand-by. Steve Tandy and David Bishop are both not expected back for a few months thanks to injuries to their shoulders and knees respectively.

Cardiff have 5 players on Welsh duty and Felise with Tonga.

On paper Cardiff can look to take this game and given history they took Ospreys apart wtih ease last time they played at home.
Henson will be looking to start for the Ospreys having not played for the region since 27th January. He was due to play against Bristol in their 27-15 victory, but pulled out last minute thanks to food poisoning.

Teams
Blues: Ben Blair; Rhys Williams, Tal Selley, Dafydd Hewitt, Jamie Roberts; Nick Robinson, Jason Spice; John Yapp, Gareth Williams, Gary Powell, Deiniol Jones, Paul ***o, Maama Molitika, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Xavier Rush (capt).
Replacements: Scott Roberts, Ross Johnson, Robert Sidoli, Mark Lewis, Richie Rees, Nick Macleod, Marc Stcherbina.

Ospreys: Lee Byrne; Stefan Terblanche, Mark Taylor, Andrew Bishop, Aled Brew; Shaun Connor, Justin Marshall; Paul James, Richard Hibbard, Andrew Millward, Brent Cockbain (capt), Mike Collins, Andy Lloyd, Richard Pugh, Filo Tiatia.
Replacements: Barry Williams, Cai Griffiths, Mike Powell/Tom Smith, Ben Lewis, Martin Roberts, Jonathan Spratt, Jonathan Vaughton.

<span style="color:#000000">Referee:​

Tim Hayes (WRU)


Discussions below...
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[gjohn85]

Henson's out, no surprise there. Apparently he hasn't recovered from his food poisoning. A mate in work I know said that he has seen Henson in Makro (where I work) in the past two weekends. He said that he didn't look ill, he said that he did look in good shape.

Even though both sides are weakened, I'm still looking forward to the match tomorrow. The Ospreys haven't lost the opening game of the season in 5 years. I wonder if they can make it 6 years.

 

[Thingimubob]

Blues were looking fantastic when they played Gloucester last week. Our pack is looking very sharp, and our experienced head such as Rush, Nicky Robinson, Rhys Williams and Gareth Williams are looking to be a very good combination with the new faces like Jason Spice, Tal Selley (Both ex-Ospreys) Paul ***o, Maama Molitika (who has returned from a Japanese club) and Daffydd Hewitt looks to be a dangerous mixture. It's very likely that I'm going, so expect some pictures, hopefully from up close in the front of the terraces.

So come on the Blues!

 

[gjohn85]

How much are tickets for the Blues nowadays, Thingimubob? I remember the days when is was dirt cheap to go & watch Ponty play.

 

[An Tarbh]

I know I'm going slightly off topic here but which region were Ponty tied into?

 

[Cymro]

Blues

 

[gjohn85]

Ponty are not really tied with anyone. Cardiff Blues nearest club from Ponty, so most players go there, like a friend from school has joined from ponty.

 

[SaintsFan_Webby]

Well that was fairly tedious to watch up until about the last 10 minutes when desperation set in.

I realise the Ospreys have a fair few internationals away at the moment, but they have no chance of living up to this hype about them competing in the HEC if their squad players perform that badly. The Cardiff pack is decent, but their are fiercer tests lying in wait in the dark corners of France and England - if the Ospreys get bullied and concede so many penalties in the forwards on a regular basis then they have no chance of success. Tiatia, good ball carrier though he is, could quite easily become a liability. The number of times he went straight over the top of rucks or took out men without the ball, needless offences, was ridiculous. A referee with more experience at a higher level will ping him regularly. Justin Marshall is also well past his best; the sooner Mike Phillips is instated at 9 the better.

On the flip side, can't see Cardiff doing anything special either. At least not until they find someone decent to replace Nicky Robinson. The guy just doesn't instill the confidence you need from a top class 10, and seems unable to get the ball wide on a regular enough basis.

 

[Thingimubob]

Costs £5 for me (I;m under 18) for terrace tickets, I think it would be the same for me in the stands as well. I think it's £10 for adults i the terraces, and a bit more in the stands. I've heard it's cheap up Sardis Road in Ponty, and apparently if you wait 'till 5 mins after kick off you can get in free.

Not the best game, Blues made a fair few mistakes, mostly in attack, which wasn't helped by a daft ref who seemed to have his own version of the rules. One thing that annoyed me was the fact that he didn't do anything when the Ospreys scrum (repeatedly) drove before the ball was put in, but penalized the Blues straight away when they did it for the first time. I found the Ospreys less inclined to run the ball than the Blues, and on a whole, the Blues coped with this, and made teh Ospreys look a bit flat when they did go through the hands, looking for gaps. But as per usual, silly little mistakes, and daft decisions from the players denied us scores (please don't try a Drop Goal Nicky if you're gonna muck it up completely...) and very almost lost us the game. Ah well, at least we won, nice try by Rhys Williams.

P.S. Sorry forgot to bring my camera, though my friend got a nice mug-shot of Justin Marshall during the post match pitch invasion.

 

[gjohn85]

Well that was fairly tedious to watch up until about the last 10 minutes when desperation set in.

I realise the Ospreys have a fair few internationals away at the moment, but they have no chance of living up to this hype about them competing in the HEC if their squad players perform that badly. The Cardiff pack is decent, but their are fiercer tests lying in wait in the dark corners of France and England - if the Ospreys get bullied and concede so many penalties in the forwards on a regular basis then they have no chance of success. Tiatia, good ball carrier though he is, could quite easily become a liability. The number of times he went straight over the top of rucks or took out men without the ball, needless offences, was ridiculous. A referee with more experience at a higher level will ping him regularly. Justin Marshall is also well past his best; the sooner Mike Phillips is instated at 9 the better.

On the flip side, can't see Cardiff doing anything special either. At least not until they find someone decent to replace Nicky Robinson. The guy just doesn't instill the confidence you need from a top class 10, and seems unable to get the ball wide on a regular enough basis. [/b]

I agree with what you say, but it is only the first game of the season. I hope that mistakes from both sides are just cause of rustiness.

 

[RC]

There was a severe case of the "rusties" in this game.

My mate managed to blag a couple of free tickets which (as Ospreys supporters) got us tickets in the Cardiff seaso ticket holders stand,
2 Ospreys supporters amongst hundreds of Blues fans...not fun when Connor misses the last kick of the game to lose the match.

Both teams were pretty poor to say the least. Cardiff deserved to win this game, but simply because they showed the impetus to make some dangerous moves and make the crowd think that they had a chance of scoring .
It was horrific to watch from an Ospreys point of view, considering that some of our best performances last season came from the "second string squad" but the boys really didn't pick it up when need be.

Th first half really seemed to drag and i think cardiff deserved to have the try, after taking the opportunity.

All in all, it was a terrible game. Derby's are very rarely flashy and attractive to watch, but this was beyond amateurish!