Cardiff v Edinburgh

[An Tarbh]

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Cardiff v Edinburgh

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Cardiff can regain top spot if they beat Edinburgh on Friday night. Dai Young will be certainly looking for an improved performance from his side following their defeat at the Liberty Stadium and given recent form will certainly need that improvement given the 2 huge Heineken Cup games on the horizon.

Edinburgh will be looking to continue their decent run of recent form although their away form still leaves a lot to be desired, something Robinson's side will be hoping to redress in this clash at the Arms Park.

It should be a home win but given the injury problems that the Blues have, nothing new there I know but it's going to affect them sometime, and Robinson seems to be making slow and steady progress with this Edinburgh side.

 

[An Tarbh]

I'd say this game was close to being called off judging by the state of the pitch.

 

[Prestwick]

Good try by Edinburgh and Robinson must be watching that thinking "...now why couldn't England exploit two on ones of four on twos like that?"

Pitch is a quagmire though and Edinburgh are fanatical in their defence, making things very hard for Cardiff who just don't seemed switched on. Nobody on the Cardiff like could be arsed to drift outwards in the run up to the Edinburgh try.

Just watched the Blues finally score their try but that was roughly after fifteen straight minutes of pounding that Edinburgh wall. Even a man down, Edinburgh seem to be just awesome in defence.

 

[An Tarbh]

Robinson is really making some decent progress with that Edinburgh side, I know Cardiff didn't look that interested tonight but they still have to get the away win which they've struggled to do so kudos to Robinson and his side.

 

[Incredible Schalk]

4 wins in a row for Edinburgh, it was vital that they started winning away from home. There isnt many tougher places to go and win than the Arms Park, i always felt Robinson would do a good job. Real shame they didnt get Larkham as they might have done even better.

 

[edinburgh_gunner]

While Larkam would have been good, we wouldn't have seen the resurgance in Godman we have done in the past few games.

I only saw the 2nd half, but from what i say our defence was solid and physical, and our pack competed well forcing many turnovers. Blair and Godman continue their recent good form, which is key to a good team being a winning one. Cairnsy had another good game and continues to show why he should be ahead of Southwell, who seems to be a one trick pony in attack with only the abillity to kick rather than execute a 2 on 1. De Luca was strong and surely must be in contention for the 13 jersey for Scotland. Webbo played well given his injury problems recently too. Our line out was a bit hit and miss at times, but that will come from pracitce on the paddock.

I don't think anyone would have predicted us to be 3rd in the league at this time of the year. Robinson has done well at Edinburgh and I think he's proved many people, from England it has to be said, wrong and that he is competant. He's taken a group of young Scottish players and turned them into a winning side. I don't think we'll win the league, but the progress is there to be seen and I really think if Robinson keeps this up with the young group of players we have then we will have a ***le challenging side in a couple seasons.

 

[Prestwick]

Forgive me, but if Saracens hired Gareth Jenkins tomorrow or Eddie O'Sullivan or even Jake White during his crap patch in the last four years, I would not share your boundless optimism.

 

[shtove]

Impressed by Edinburgh. Smart team. Good to see Robinson getting plenty of credit as coach.

The two Irish analysts on Setanta were not liking Cardiff - highlights showed Howley looking "depressed" up in the stands, and one of boys said he must be wondering how such highly paid players could be "so thick"!

***o is a good leader.

 

[Cymro]

It was a pain to watch that game, take nothing away from the gunners they did play well but Cardiff were very ppor, there are no excuses for this, 'oh the christmas games took a battering on us', Cardiff were poor end of Daf Hewett is terrible at center, hes a winger not a center, they should have shoved Alfie there but mind you it looks like Alfie is coming to an end, he cant sustain himself and lacks pace.

Cardiff should have capatalise more when the guneers were down 2 men but again shows little creativity and shows that Cardiff do miss Nicky Robinson at fly half and possibly Scherbina at 12.

Cardiff defence was poor and I was really hoping that Dai Young would have sorted this out. Those players must be able to drift over but it never happned thus leading to the gunners try.

All in all it was a pretty poor game!

 

[stormmaster1]

Robinson has done well, but in fairness to him he was the first british coach to lift the heineken cup, and the forwards coach when england won the WC in 2003. he wasn't making the right decisions as top man for England, but he does have some coaching credibility.

 

[edinburgh_gunner]

I said this at the time, that Robinson is a good club level coach. He might be out of his depth as an international head coach, but he seems to be working well with the resources at Edinburgh.

 

[Cymro]

Who knows it in a few years time could we see the Gunners lifting a European Cup?

I think so