By Andrew Collins
January 4 2006

The Blues min revival has been put on ice following a 5 try loss to the LLanelli Scarlets on Monday. The Blues were tactically outclassed by head coach Gareth Jenkins, in a match that Dai Young will hopefully learn from.

Blues: Rhys Williams (capt) 7; Craig Morgan 7, Jamie Robinson 7, Marc Stcherbina 6, Jonah Lomu 8; Nicky Robinson 6, Ryan Powell 5; Gethin Jenkins 6, Rhys Thomas 6, Martin Jones 6, Craig Quinnell 6, Robert Sidoli 7, Andy Powell 7, Martyn Williams 7, Xavier Rush 7.
Replacements: John Yapp 7 (Jones 70), Duane Goodfield 7 (Thomas 80), Deiniol Jones 7 (Sidoli 57), Robin Sowden-Taylor 7 (Powell 73), Wayne Evans 7 (Warren74), Tristan Davies 6(R. Williams 70), Roger Warren 7 (N Robinson 30).

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After waiting 50 minutes to collect tickets that we'd already bough (bizzare i know), the game eventually kicked off, albeit 10 minutes late, but as ever, the Blues made it difficult for themselves in the opening minutes of the game. Not one, but two awfully poor passes from Ryan Powell to Nick Robinson and Marc Stcherbina gifted the home side a 5-metre scrum. The scrum was turned and from the resulting penalty, Martyn Madden connoned over for the Strady men.

It had been a very poor start for Cardiff, but the 2,500 travelling city fans were used to this kind op opening exchange, and so there was still all to play for. Gareth Bowen failed to add the conversion.

The Blues seemed more settled from the restart however, and began to look calmer and more controlled in their possession. Although it seemed clear the Llanelli defence was up quick, the Blues were able to retain possession and were tactically kicking well.

There was a chance for a reward too, when Martyn Williams opted for goal from a penalty, but Nikcy Robinson put his effort just wide before going off injured, the first of many.

With Roger Warren taking his place, he seemed settled soon and his touch finding was much better than Nicky, who had put a penalty punt dead shortly before getting injured.

However, the Blues found themselves 10-0 down before long, a great solo try from Mark Jones will've done his 6 Nations hopes no harm, however the missed tackled from opposite winger Craig Morgan may hinder his own sights. After rounding Morgan with too much ease, the injury-prone winger collected his chip over Rhys Williams to score in the left corner. Fortunately, Bowen's kicking was keeping the Blues within touching distance.

Roger Warren registered the Blues first points of the match with a penalty to keep the Blues within 7 points at the end of the 1st half, nothing less than they desereved.

Half Time

Llanelli Scarlets 10 Cardiff Blues 3

One shinning light from the first half was Jonah Lomu, he had made most of Cardiff's few real attacks, and looks a yard faster than in his previous few games, however, he wasn't being used enough. It was clear Andy Powell and Xavier Rush were being marked out of the game by Llanelli, and without them out attacking prowess had been taken out, so using Jonah more seemed the obvious answer, but far too often he could be seen deep playing almost full back. 

Despite the scoreline seeming 1-sided, the truth was far from it. LLanelli had very little of the ball, but seemed much more likely to do something with it. From their 2 chances, the Scarlets had come away with 2 tries. Whereas the Blues were being out played by the west-Wales defence.

The second half seemed started well for Cardiff, and you could begin to feel the balance of the game tipping, having been under pressure for so much of the game, but only down by 7 seemed to lift Cardiff, the same way it lifted Wales in Paris.

Soon after the restart, Roger Warren added to his total with a well struck penalty, with flanker daffyd Jones being sinned binned in the procees. The balance was clearly tipping in the Blues favour  and it seemed a sign of better things to come in the second half.

Martyn Williams then rolled over from a well executed maul, converted by warren, giving a bit of breathing space between the two in Cardiffs favour.

But the game took an unpredicted twist, as two tries in as many minutes saw the Scarlets leap frog the capital in terms of points. The balance had well and truely re-shifted in the home sides favour, as Cardiff were effectively beaten.

Firstly, Alix Popham made a neat break from the maul, and when tackled by Warren near the line, offloaded to Regan Kind who stepped over for the score, this time converted by Bowen.

The second came from less clever play, and sheer unluck for the Blues. Just 2 minutes after conceding, the Blues pinned the Scarlets back in their 22, but a touch kick from Bowen bounced wikidly, and somehow stayed in, the chase from Mark Jones payed off as the bouncing ball fell right in his arms, Craig Morgan tackled the winger, but support from Matthew Watkins was enough to send Strady crazy. Bowen again converted.

To make things worse, a string of injuries left Cardiff with a very depleted looking side. Following Nicky Robinson to the physio were Rob Sidoli, Roger Warren, and Rhys Williams, the side played out the match with Craig Morgan at full back, Jamie Robinson at outside half, and acadamy scrum half Wayne Evans on the wing!

The Scarlets assured all 5 points were then safe with one final blow. After being forced to give away a lineout in our 22, the maul pushed to the line, only for Dwain Peel to dart over from very close range. 5 tries from Gareth Jenkins' men was plenty to give the scoreboard unpleasent reading for Dai Young.

Final Score

Llanelli Scarlets 32 Cardiff Blues 13

ArmsPark.tk Man of The Match: Jonah Lomu
Was unfortunately quiet, but with the ball looked sharp and quick. He was very strong going forward, and never looked like giving an inch. He came through a few high ball tests and covered well. The criticsm of being too out of the game i think is one of Dai Young rather than Jonah. He looked s shade of his old self, still not there, but another big improvement.