Bath Rugby 38 - 3 Cardiff Blues
Thu 15 December 19:45 Recreation Ground Att: 12,556 Ref: Alexandre Ruiz European Challenge Cup

Preview: Bath Rugby v Cardiff Blues

Wed 14 Dec 2016 17:02 Preview: Bath Rugby v Cardiff Blues
Danny Wilson’s side travel to Somerset on the back of an impressive 28-3 victory over the Aviva Premiership side, and will hope to extend their lead at the top of Pool Four in the European Challenge Cup.
 
Wilson has made three changes for the trip, with Cory Allen, Kirby Myhill and Macauley Cook called into the starting line-up in place of Alex Cuthbert, Kristian Dacey and Seb Davies.
 
Ellis Jenkins has recovered from a head injury, which kept him out of last week’s win, and is named on the bench. Sam Warburton will captain Cardiff Blues on his 99th appearance for the region.
 
Meanwhile, Bath Rugby have recalled a host of first teamers for the clash, with England international duo George Ford and Jonathan Joseph appearing in the back-line following a successful
 
In the back-row, Taulupe Faletau, who has recovered from a recent eye injury, starts in the Number 8 slot, and is joined in the back-row by the returning, Francois Louw, capped 52-times by the Springboks.
 
Former Cardiff Blues players Aled Brew and Darren Allinson are also included in the match day squad.
 
What They Said
 
Danny Wilson believes his side can take confidence from last week’s victory at BT Sport Arms Park, and is excited to visit Bath for the return fixture.
 
"The boys have trained well and are looking forward to a really exciting opportunity to go to a great venue and play a very well-coached and well-recruited team.
 
"They are going into this with some confidence off the back of a win but they know what the challenge is to beat Bath at home - it is massive and it would be a huge result.
 
"We go there as big underdogs but we go with that confidence from a good performance and result and if we play similar to that we'll test them on their patch."
 
"We are trying to turn around a similar group of players and it's been well documented that we have a pretty long injury list.
 
"A couple of boys haven't made the game which gives us our own challenges before we look at Bath, who have a big squad and a fair bit of depth.
 
"The new injuries are short-term knocks and with the short turnaround and them not being quite right it would be high risk to put them in - we could lose them for a longer period.
 

 
Meanwhile, full-back Matthew Morgan, who starred in the home victory over Bath last week, is prepared for a tough test at The Rec.
 
“I think they’ll change their team around a bit, but from our point of view nothing changes. We want to go out there and do a job.
 
“Bath is a tough place to go and it’s a short turn-around so training has been short and sharp this week.
 
“We’re expecting them to have a good crowd, but that’s another mental factor which could boost us up as well.
 
“For the team more than anything, we owed ourselves that performance last week. Over the past few games we haven’t played as well as we’ve wanted to, but things fell into place last Saturday.

 

Cardiff Blues: Matthew Morgan; Cory Allen, Rey Lee-Lo, Willis Halaholo, Blaine Scully; Steven Shingler, Lloyd Williams; Rhys Gill, Kirby Myhill, Taufa’ao Filise, George Earle, James Down, Macauley Cook, Sam Warburton (c), Josh Navidi
 
Replacements: Matthew Rees, Brad Thyer, Scott Andrews, Jarrad Hoeata, Seb Davies, Ellis Jenkins, Tomos Williams, Nicky Robinson
 
Bath Rugby: Tom Homer; Jack Wilson, Jonathan Joseph, Ben Tapuai, Aled Brew; George Ford (c), Kahn Fotuali’i; Nick Auterac, Ross Batty, Max Lahiff, Charlie Ewels (c), Dave Attwood, Tom Ellis, Francois Louw, Taulupe Faletau
 
Replacements: Michael van Vuuren, Beno Obano, Shaun Knight, Elliott Stooke, Zach Mercer, Darren Allinson, Adam Hastings, Max Clark