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Cardiff Blues match delayed after team endure nightmarish trip from Wales

By Online Editors
Wales and Cardiff Blues back-row Sam Warburton

A nightmare 55 hour travel time from Cardiff to South Africa has seen organisers delay their Pro14 clash with the Cheetahs.

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The match will now be played at 18.15 UK time, five hours later than originally scheduled.

A statement from the Pro14 reveals: “Due to flight delays from London and South Africa and again from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein, Cardiff Blues only arrived on Friday evening in Bloemfontein for the round 19 Guinness PRO14 clash against the Toyota Cheetahs on Saturday.

“The Blues have travelled for 50 hours and to accommodate them, it has been decided to push back the kick-off time to 18:15 on Saturday, 7 April in Toyota Stadium, Bloemfontein. The match will be broadcast live on SuperSport.”

Initially the Blues arrived in Bloemfontein without their bags, though they have now been delivered to the team hotel.

Gareth Anscombe will captain Cardiff Blues in what is a crucial Guinness PRO14 fixture in Bloemfontein.

Wales’ Capital Region head into the game on the back of eight consecutive victories in domestic and European competition and a win would put pressure on the South African-outfit, as the race for the PRO14 Final Series heats up.

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26-year-old Anscombe replaces Jarrod Evans at outside half for the Toyota Stadium clash, and he has previous experience of playing at the Bloemfontein venue following his time in Super Rugby with Chiefs.

Anscombe is part of a new-look half-back partnership, with Lloyd Williams introduced to the starting XV as one of 11 changes from last week’s Challenge Cup quarter-final win over Edinburgh.

Elsewhere in the backs, Matthew Morgan and Garyn Smith, who were unused replacements at BT Murrayfield last week, are recalled, while Alex Cuthbert returns from injury to take his place on the wing.

The Welsh international is looking to finish the season on a high, ahead of a summer move to Aviva Premiership champions, Exeter Chiefs.

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Seven changes are made in the pack, with last week’s man-of-the-match, Josh Navidi, retaining his place in the back row. He moves to number eight and is joined by openside Olly Robinson, who recovers from a short-term injury lay-off, and Macauley Cook, who edges closer to his 150th appearance for the region.

Seb Davies and Damian Welch combine in the second row, while Rhys Gill, Kirby Myhill and Anton Peikrishvili are given the nod in the front row.

As the season draws to a close, and the Blues remaining competitive in both the PRO14 and Challenge Cup, Wilson believes it’s crucial to manage his squad over the next month, and is aware of the travel and climate challenges facing his side at Bloemfontein.

“We’ll keep taking it game-by-game, because I don’t think you can plan much further ahead than that,” said Wilson.

“But you certainly have to keep one eye on the fact that there is a semi final around the corner, after two games in South Africa. You have to manage your squad for that type of challenge.

“You have to find the balance, with the headache – albeit a nice headache – of thinking about the semi final as well.

“The travel element will take out of the recovery of a couple of players and therefore we haven’t risked on them.

“It’s also the fall out of the game we had last week. Winning an away quarter final against a side like Edinburgh was quite an achievement, but we had a pretty battled and bruised squad after the game.

“We’ve had a tough run of games recently, and played a lot of top sides, and it’s going to take its toll, but the important thing now is to manage the squad correctly going into the last few games of the season.

“We’ve obviously done our fair bit of research into the travel and how to reduce the effect of travel, then obviously playing at altitude, which we will do in the first game, and we won’t have a huge amount of time to climatise to that.”

Cardiff Blues have plenty of firepower to introduce from the bench, as the likes of Josh Turnbull, Ellis Jenkins, Dillon Lewis, Tomos Williams and Rey Lee-Lo have impressed over the past few weeks.

Cardiff Blues: Matthew Morgan; Alex Cuthbert, Garyn Smith, Willis Halaholo, Owen Lane; Gareth Anscombe (capt), Lloyd Williams; Rhys Gill, Kirby Myhill, Anton Peikrishvili, Seb Davies, Damian Welch, Macauley Cook, Olly Robinson, Josh Navidi

Replacements: Ethan Lewis, Brad Thyer, Dillon Lewis, Josh Turnbull, Ellis Jenkins, Tomos Williams, Steven Shingler, Rey Lee-Lo

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Jon 5 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 12 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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