I'm not sure about Dai Young. He's had a long time at the Blues, and hasn't really delivered much. I think he's a good coach, but has probably stagnated somewhat.
Stagnated is how I'd describe the squad aswell. Just quickly running through the squad shows some worrying signs. It's an ageing squad in many areas, and in others simply has a complete lack of quality:
- There's not much quality at tighthead prop, and really they've been getting away with playing loosheads on the tight for a while now (Falise, Powell and Yapp). Hopefully Scott Andrews can improve his scrummaging, becuase they've been slaughtered in that aspect against the big teams. When you get a bit of a hiding scrum time from the Scarlets, you know somethings up!
- There's ageing players all over the back 5 of the forward pack, and whilst the likes of Bradley Davies, Sam Warburton and Pretorious have helped a little, it doesn't seem to be enough. ***o, Deiniol Jones, Martyn Williams, Molitika and Rush are all in their 30's, and those were the players that were really playing well a couple of seasons ago when the Blues looked like a quality side. Paterson went well today at lock (apart from the silly yellow card), so him and Bradley may be the future, along with James Down. This must be Molitika's last season? He's 36 ffs! Pretorius looks good, so that looks like a straight swap. But where will the backup options come from?
- Scrum half is fine with Richie Rees, Lloyd Williams and Rhys Downes.
- Outside half is arguably their biggest problem. Parks is sh*t, utterly useless. Sweeney can be ok, but he's not really the quality the Blues need as their first choice 10. He's a decent backup when needed. However he's better than Parks! Is there anyone coming through the ranks? I mean, all the other regions have 10's coming through, Priestland at the Scarlets, Tovey and now maybe Stefan Jones at the Dragons, Biggar and Matthew Morgan at the O's. What's happening at the clubs within the Blues region? Without a quality 10 who can get the backs moving, the Blues won't go anywhere fast!
- Centres. There is some quality at centre. Laulala, Roberts and Hewitt are all good. However with Shanks now retired, where's the quality backup. Gavin Evans is again ok, but nothing special. Anyone coming through? Not that I've seen!
- Blues have some decent outside backs. I'm not sure why they persist so much with Czekaj, because imo he's not all that good. He has the physical attributes, and can make breaks, but he very rarely makes the right decisions afterwards. Halfpenny is class, but has had a difficult season with injury. Tom James seems to be in and out of the team all the time. He's a finisher though, so I'd persist with him, but is similar to Czekaj in that he's not got much of a rugby brain. I don't know why Musto isn't used more, one of the most underrated players in Wales. Always plays well and gives it his all every game. Harry Robinson is a good prospect coming through. Ben Blair has been a massive loss this season. He's been at the heart of everything good with the Blues for some years. Blues don't really have a genuine fullback replacement either.
Overall as I said, the Blues squad is ageing in many areas (especially the leaders in the team), there's a lack of quality in certain position, and there's a severe lack of depth in the squad. They've had an injury ravaged season to be fair, missing important players for large parts of the season (Blair, Halfpenny, Roberts, Gethin Jenkins, Gary Powell, Shanklin). However with a lack of depth they may find themselves in a similar position next season aswell, as the Dragons often do. Tough times ahead imo, unless they recruit a few players in key positions.
Edit. Thingimubob, nice to see you again. Roberts was one of the Blues stand-out players. He seemed a little more at home in some ways on the wing. He entered the line more effectively than I've seen for a while, and got around the field looking for work. He was a monster with ball in hand, taking yardage every time. Also put Czekaj away with a lovely pinpoint pass after taking an inside ball off Laulala. Still not enough dummy runs from those around him though!
