Ulster Rugby vs Cardiff Blues

Tonight star-laden Cardiff Blues take to the Kingspan sward for what is truly the start of the ‘business end’ of Ulster’s long, roller-coasting season. MOMENTUM CAN DULL THE BLUES

The visitors present a rugby conundrum in that though blessed with a strikingly impressive squad over the years the club has stubbornly under- achieved in the Guinness PRO12. Indeed, since its re-invention as the Blues in 2003, the Cardiff Arms Park outfit has consistently resisted the expectations of its own fan base and the wider sporting community in the competition which excites such fervour in the other less distinguished teams in the Championship. Second-placed finishes in 2007 and 2008 flattered only to deceive, and mid-table mediocrity – and worse – has too often marked its domestic campaigns. And the Welsh arrive at Kingspan this evening sitting eighth in the current table, 23 points behind Ulster which occupies the last of those critical Top Four positions with just four rounds of the regular season remaining. But, and what a significant caveat this is, Cardiff may have no play-off ambitions of its own but it can heavily influence Ulster’s hard-earned but still tentative grip on being part of those mid-May Play-offs. With a squad packed with international pedigree the Blues demonstrated in recent weeks that, when engaged, it can compete with the best: and the best in the PRO12 at the moment is Leinster which clung on for a 22-21 win at the RDS two weeks ago, young scrum-half Tomos Williams crossing twice in a fiercely-contested match. Last weekend, Cardiff had a European Challenge Cup quarter-final to negotiate, and after leading at Kingsholm by 26-20 with a free-running display, they were again second-best as Gloucester – with Jonny Bell in charge as Interim Coach – turned on the power to progress to the semi-finals with a 46-26 win. So Ulster will be well aware that tonight in Belfast it faces opponents with a proven try-scoring armoury and a forward unit which can often rouse itself to top-level performance. Coach Danny Wilson is in his second season in charge at Arms Park and is fashioning a player pool which he will not for long tolerate failing to mirror its collective talents and enjoy the PRO12 and European success the club craves and believes its resources merit.

The Cardiff club, in an earlier form, boasted such as Bleddyn Williams, Cliff Morgan, Gerald Davies and the peerless Gareth Edwards as celebrated alumni who have decorated rugby, and today there are tyros of the professional era in the Blues’ dressing room. Flanker Sam Warburton is just 28, and his Six Nations’ form has seen him jump into contention to captain, for a second time, a Lions party this summer. The skipper, prop Gethin Jenkins, is a legendary figure already, ‘capped’ by Wales 126 times and at 36 now concentrating his formidable frame on pushing his club closer to its ambitions in the PRO12 and in Europe. On the other side of the front row is the intimidating Tongan Taufa’ao Filise, while lock George Earle was one four key figures lured away from the Scarlets last summer, though the gifted playmaker Rhys Patchell made the journey the other way, from Arms Park to Parc y Scarlets. Of course ‘one of our own’ joined the Blues last summer and after early injury blight Nick Williams is a charismatic and fearsome force, and he’s added further grit and lustre to the breakaway unit which performed so well against Leinster and in the first half exchanges at Gloucester. Ulster will have studied the opposition this evening in minute detail, and it is up front where – as the truism has it – all games are essentially won, so Roger Wilson, Sean Reidy and Iain Henderson will need to be at their best and most alert to stifle the anticipated early Cardiff onslaught and build the platform from which the home backline will be anxious to launch attacks at pace and with accuracy. Paddy Jackson’s return to the No. 10 shirt renews the proven pairing with the wondrous pivot Ruan Pienaar who, on what will almost certainly be one of his final three appearances for Ulster at Kingspan Stadium, is guaranteed an embracing ovation from supporters who have long realised they have witnessed the best, and the most excitingly inventive, of one of modern rugby’s greatest scrum-halves. Charles Piutau will relish the chance to get the fans off their seats once again with his powerful

ROD NAWN

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