The Cardiff Blues are pleased with their second half revival against Benetton last Sunday as the back three impress in the side’s bonus-point victory.
Robert Rees has the latest from the Arms Park.
Mulvihill pleased with player reaction on Sunday
“We got back to playing the way we prepared, there were a lot of uncontested kicks and penalties in that first half. We gave away seven penalties in the first half and only one the second, we did better with the ball,” said John Mulvihill.
“I’ve been around long enough to know that the only score that matters is after 80 minutes. Sometimes you hang on and we hung on really well and the messages were pretty brief at half time.
“We put them under a lot of pressure and to be fair to Benetton they’re missing a lot of international players. They hadn’t played for five weeks so we thought if we kept the tempo in the game then they’d tire and they ran out of steam in the end”.
“Performance was massive compared to the effort last week. The boys really wanted it and you have to win your home games and you definitely have to win the games against teams in your conference.”
“Here come the teams! pic.twitter.com/KpUmesDxhj
— Robert Rees (@Rreesrugby) February 23, 2020
Turnbull – First half played into Benetton half
“In the first half we played a lot of attacking rugby but not in the right areas so it was about putting that possession into the right areas so we could execute and we came away with some tries.
“We knew we could put the pressure back on to them and come away with points with that first try in the second half,” Turnbull said. “Jason [Harries], Hallam [Amos], Ryan [Edwards] were really good today. The half-backs controlled things a lot better second half and we came away with a good win.
“Afterwards you forget about the first half and think you came away with a decent victory, but we made it hard for ourselves. We turned too much ball over and gave away too many penalties. To only give away one in the second half shows what we’re capable of doing.”
It’s warming up at CAP. pic.twitter.com/LSVLaaOOTE
— Robert Rees (@Rreesrugby) February 23, 2020
Composure was key insists Harries
In analyzing the sides win, Jason Harries explained that, “We spoke at half time about staying in the game and we said we’ve got to stick to our guns and in that second half it showed that when we keep ball we can score tries.
“It was about being composed in our own half and picking the right options at the right time so we reverted back to what we were good at.”
“It’s nice to get ball in space, the boys inside run the lines and it’s nice to get some ball in the wide channels. “We gathered underneath the posts [after Benetton’s bonus point] and talked about how some stuff doesn’t go your way and it’s how you react to that. We didn’t drop our heads and knew we had more tries in us.”
What a comeback! Appreciate every single person who joined us on a Sunday night. Also great to see so many youngsters from clubs, scouts and guides here. Diolch pic.twitter.com/R42SML6xEc
— Cardiff Blues (@cardiff_blues) February 23, 2020
The Cardiff Blues go again this weekend against Edinburgh. Stay up to date with all the previews on our website.
“Main photo credit”
