Ulster Rugby vs Cardiff Blues

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’!

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