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ARTICLE BY ROD NAWN
FREELANCE JOURNALIST
AND SPORTS ENTHUSIAST
@RODNAWN1
The Blues came out narrowly on the wrong
side of a high-scoring loss to top-of-the-table
Munster last weekend, but coach Danny Wilson
is shrewdly strengthening the squad, and with
Phil John responsible for organising the backs,
the Welsh team will undoubtedly be inventive.
At flyhalf, Rhys Patchell is regarded as one of
the brightest young stars of the game in Wales,
and though he limped out of Kingspan Stadium
last season, he’ll be someone the Ulster back
row will hope to limit in his playmaking role.
Along with centre Tom Isaacs, a try-scorer in
Munster, Ulster will need to close down the
midfield axis between him and his gifted outhalf.
Hooker Matthew Rees is a veteran of the
international scene, and the pack is one which
Doak sees as a unit which Ulster must confront
and master. That means the players leaving the
home dressing room must be prepared, and
quickly, for a game of immense physicality, and
in Wiehann Herbst, Rob Herring, Franco van der
Merwe and Roger Wilson providing a spine of
some experience and strength, Ulster has the
resources to provide a platform for the talented
three-quarter line.
“We now need to show that we have energetic
minds and energetic bodies to kick-start the
season,” said Doak. “We have three away
games coming up but if we can get all the
things we’ve worked on right against Cardiff,
get the performance and the result, we put
ourselves right in the PRO12 frame and have the
launchpad for the busy schedule ahead.”
Cardiff Blues is a club with a rich and proud
tradition, the legends associated with the
Arms Park are legion, but it arrives in Belfast
hoping that it can realise the ambitions of its
management and players and restore itself as
the pinnacle of the club game in Wales and
beyond.
It’s an intriguing contest, one which promises
some compelling, entertaining, attack-minded
rugby.
For home fans the wish is they will pour out
of the stadium tonight with Cardiff still in
possession of ‘the Blues’!