RUGBY MAGNERS LEAGUE Cardiff Blues v Connacht:CONNACHT'S POTENTIAL for revival looks more promising than ever under the stewardship of Eric Elwood but a bump in the road seems inevitable tonight.
If they get out of Cardiff unscathed the Galway native may just be the Messiah because this really is a water-into-wine task.
The problem is a five-day turnaround since the brutal 15-15 draw with Ulster at the Sportsground last Saturday, not helped by having to pitch up in Swansea as there are no rooms in the Cardiff city inns, due to some silly golf event.
Six of the eight forwards who broke even, spilling plenty of blood in the process, with an Ulster pack that received the off-season financial injection of beefy South Africans, are back on duty again, with Bernie Upton sure to see time off the bench (everyone will, surely) but international hooker Seán Cronin is, presumably, withheld due to the World Cup conditioning programme.
Elwood, as he has refreshingly admitted in recent weeks, just cannot catch a break. His predecessor in the position, Michael Bradley, led us all to believe everything was fine in the western province.
It isn’t. Elwood has had no problem stating stone cold facts.
They didn’t need to be dragged into the middle of the Ryder Cup carnival. It is unfair, unnecessary and should result in a heavy defeat to a decent-looking Cardiff side despite absentees like Jamie Roberts.
The electric Casey Laulala has been passed fit to start at centre, while Blues captain Xavier Rush is over a knee problem so should clock up his usual quota of yardage from number eight.
Gareth Cooper makes his first start of the season for the Blues at scrumhalf as Richie Rees has not recovered from his calf strain.
The Connacht forwards need to dig deep, Ian Keatley needs a near-perfect return with his place-kicking and some space needs to be found for Fionn Carr’s pace to do some damage.
Elwood predicts a more open rugby match than the bare-knuckle brawl with Ulster but that may not work in their favour. The Leinster defeat aside, Cardiff are in decent form and coach Dai Young will have this down as a five pointer.
Johnny O’Connor should hopefully make a welcome return to the openside flank, after a hip injury, while Gavin Duffy seems incapable of a poor game at present. Still, it should all fall asunder when the legs tire after half-time.
A lesson in containment perhaps, but Cardiff, now directed by Dan Parks, are aiming to build on last season and a home defeat to Connacht is simply unthinkable.
CARDIFF BLUES: B Blair; L Halfpenny, C Laulala, D Hewitt, C Czekaj; D Parks, G Cooper; J Yapp, R Williams, T Filise; B Davies, D Jones; M Paterson, S Warburton, X Rush (capt). Replacements: K Dacey, G Jenkins, S Andrews, P Tito, A Pretorius, K Baller, C Sweeney, T Shanklin.
CONNACHT: G Duffy; T Nathan, N Ta'auso, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy (capt); B Wilkinson, A Flavin, J Hagan; M Swift, A Browne; M McCarthy, R Ofisa, M McComish. Replacements: D Murphy, R Loughney, R Sweeney, B Upton, J O'Connor, C Willis, M Nikora, D Fanning.
Referee: Andy Macpherson(SRU).
Formguide: Cardiff19-7 Treviso; 43-21 Dragons; 23-34 Leinster. Connacht15-15 Ulster; 19-17 Glasgow; 33-35 Scarlets.
Betting: Connacht 5/1, Cardiff 1/9, Draw 22/1 Forecast: Cardiff win.
