Cardiff Blues 3 - 18 Glasgow Warriors
Sat 06 October 18:30 Cardiff Arms Park Att: 7,442 Ref: Guiseppe Vivarini Pro12

Halfpenny returns as Blues name side to face Glasgow

Thu 4 Oct 2012 21:33 Halfpenny returns as Blues name side to face Glasgow
Speaking ahead of the match Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby, Phil Davies, said,

“This week it is about tightening up the defence, ensuring we make our one on one tackles effectively and continue to build our set piece.”

“We also need to get our scrum more consistent. Overall it is important to ensure the consistency is there and that we are more clinical.”

“It is important to encourage the players to play positive rugby; like when you see Tom James or Alex Cuthbert breaking from the back and getting the crowd on their feet.”

“As a coach you have to be objective and keep the players feeling as if they are moving forward.”

The Blues know it will be a tough match facing an inform Glasgow side who have put together a run of three successive RaboDirect PRO12 victories, and have won four of their last five encounters with the Welsh regions.

Glasgow also achieved the double over the Blues for the very first time last season and are going for an unprecedented third straight win over the Welshmen.

“This week has been a really good week of preparation,” continued Davies.

“We have trained against Bath, which was about creating a really competitive, high intensity environment in which to train.”

“Bath came down to Cardiff for a few days and we had a number of training sessions.”

‘We worked on lineouts, scrums and played a 15 against 15, which was refereed by Nigel Owens.”

“It is important to have a bit of variety as well as keeping the players moving forward. We are ready to play and hopefully we can get the win tonight.”

“Glasgow are a high quality team. They were unlucky at the start of the season but have won their last three games.”

“They are strong up front, and are lead by Alastair Kellock who is a quality international second row; the battle between him and Lou Reed is going to be interesting.”

15 Leigh Halfpenny 14 Harry Robinson 13 Gavin Evans 12 Jamie Roberts 11 Tom James 10 Ceri Sweeney 9 Lloyd Williams

8 Andries Pretorius (c) 7 Josh Navidi 6 Rory Watts-Jones 5 Lou Reed 4 James Down 3 Benoit Bourrust 2 Rhys Williams 1 Campese Ma’afu

16 Marc Breeze 17 Taufa’ao Filise 18 Scott Andrews 19 Macauley Cook 20 Robin Copeland 21 Lewis Jones 22 Gareth Davies 23 Dan Fish