Blues v Sharks - a 'must-win'
Cardiff Blues take on Sale Sharks in the Heineken Cup with both teams needing a win to have a chance of progressing to the quarter- final stages.
Speaking ahead of the match David Young said: “Saturday’s match is a must win game for us, as it is for the Sale Sharks. Being realistic, if we lose to Sale, we are pretty much out of both the top tier and the second-tier competitions in Europe. So we have got to make sure we go into the last game with an opportunity to get into the quarter final stage of either the Heineken or Amlin cups. That has got to be our focus.”
“It we don’t qualify for either competition it will be a huge blow for us after having had such a good run in Europe last season.”
Reflecting on last season’s campaign, Young feels that perhaps there is added pressure on the Blues to achieve this season,
“The 2008/09 campaign was great, but some people said we over-achieved and perhaps we did. But we certainly should be doing better than we are this year. We have put ourselves under pressure and must get ourselves out of it,” added Young.
“There was expectation after our achievements of last year but we must deal with that pressure. The great champions continue to produce season on season. As we have seen year-on-year, your fate is in your own hands once into the knockout stages. They are one-off games and they can always go either way.”
Young also admits that the Sharks will also be a real threat following some good performances by the English team,
“Sale managed to pick up a bonus-point win away at Harlequins, which is never easy, so they are in a very strong position and they will certainly fancy playing against us here today.”
“However, if we play as well as we can, I am confident we have nothing to fear. The frustrating thing for all of us this season is that we have not performed for the full 80 minutes. We’ve shown glimpses of what we can do, as against the Dragons over the Christmas period, but it’s crucial that we play well for the whole match.”
Sale Sharks Head Coach Jason Robinson is looking forward to the game and said: “The group is heading for a thrilling finale and whilst we are in a good position, we can’t be complacent.”
He added: “Cardiff are a very good side with talented players all over the field. If we don’t respect them they will punish us. They were losing semi finalists in a shoot out last year and I am sure Dai Young will have his players fired up for this weekend’s game.”
Speaking about the Blues’ Director of Rugby, Dai Young, Robinson said: “Dai is a very good coach and the Blues gave us a good game at Edgeley Park back in October. We will be going to Cardiff in a positive frame of mind looking to win the game which would set up a thrilling winner takes all game against Toulouse next weekend at Edgeley Park.”
The teams:
Cardiff: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Tom James, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Andy Powell, 5 Deiniol Jones, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Taufau Filise, 2 Gareth Williams, 1 Gethin Jenkins (capt).
Replacements: 16 T Rhys Thomas, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Gary Powell, 19 Paul Tito, 20 Ben White, 21 Gareth Cooper, 22 Sam Norton Knight, 23 Tom Shanklin.
Sale: 15 Nick Macleod, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Mathew Tait, 12 Lee Thomas, 11 Ben Cohen, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Sisa Koyamaibole, 7 David Seymour, 6 Carl Fearns, 5 James Gaskell, 4 Dean Schofield, 3 Martin Halsall, 2 Neil Briggs, 1 Eifion Roberts.
Replacements: 16 Marc Jones, 17 Gavin Kerr, 18 Rob O’Donnell, 19 Chris Jones, 20 Luke Abraham, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Jonny Kennedy, 23 David Docherty.
Date: Saturday, January 16
Venue: Cardiff City Stadium
Kick-off:15.45 GMT
Referee: Romain Poite
