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Gethin Jenkins will relish the opportunity to return to his old stomping ground and remind the Arms Park faithful what they are missing when he lines up for French rugby's big spenders Toulon. - 19/10/2012 14:15
Gethin Jenkins will relish the opportunity to return to his old stomping ground and remind the Arms Park faithful what they are missing when he lines up for French rugby’s big spenders Toulon.
The Wales and Lions prop, who left the Blues for Toulon in the summer, will return to Wales for the first time since his big-money move to France and he will face a Blues side still smarting from their 34-33 defeat to Sale Sharks last weekend.
The Welsh side will still be scratching their heads about how they threw away a 15-point lead in the last quarter against the Premiership outfit in their Pool 6 opener last Sunday.
Phil Davies, the Cardiff Blues Director of Rugby, is under no illusions of the task facing his inexperienced line-up.
“Toulon are a powerful unit, a powerful team and have world-class players in every position times two,” said Davies.
“They have a galaxy of stars but we also have our own, which is important.
“It will be a heck of an occasion to test ourselves against one of the best squads in Europe and will be a great opportunity for us.
“Their salary cap is three or four times ours, but we have a group of young players who are up for the challenge. It's a great opportunity to get stuck into them and try to beat them.
“There are a couple of players who stood up and said how excited they are to be facing them. We want the victory and have the opportunity to do it. It's a tall order but I hope the supporters get behind us.”
Toulon, which has the likes of England world Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson, South African world cup winner, Bakkies Botha, Wallabies star Matt Giteau and former All Black Carl Heyman in their squad, recorded a comfortable 37-16 victory over Montpellier in the first game of the pool.
The Blues famously beat a star-studded Toulon side 28-21 in the Amlin Challenge Cup final back in 2010.
Match Facts
Toulon teammates Pierrick Gunther and Andrew Sheridan each stole lineout ball on three occasions last week, the joint-highest of the weekend.
Alex Cuthbert defeated three defenders, made three clean breaks and scored three tries in their Heineken Cup opener at Sale last week. Cuthbert has now scored the Blues' last five Heineken Cup tries, only one other player has ever scored five tries in succession in the competition: Tom Beim for Gloucester in 2000.
Cardiff have lost just one of their last 17 home games in the Heineken Cup since 2006: 19-23 to Northampton at Cardiff City Stadium on 19 December 2010.
The two teams have met just once before: the Amlin Challenge Cup final in 2010 at Marseille where the Blues won 28-21.
Toulon secured a second win of the Heineken Cup and inflicted a damaging 22-14 defeat on Cardiff Blues at the Arms Park. - 21/10/2012 15:20
Toulon secured a second win of the Heineken Cup and inflicted a damaging 22-14 defeat on Cardiff Blues at the Arms Park.
Steffon Armitage scored Toulon’s only try while Jonny Wilkinson kicked one of the favourites to lift this season’s Heineken Cup to victory.
Leigh Halfpenny scored all the Blues points, including a second-minute try, but also missed nine points at goal in a mixed kicking display that cost his team.
Toulon backed up their win over Montpellier last week while Cardiff Blues’ failure to secure any points from this tie leaves them fighting an uphill battle to qualify.
It had all started so well for the hosts who stunned the leaders of the French championship with a try inside two minutes.
Toulon, who included former Cardiff prop Gethin Jenkins, were tipped to give the Blues a tough time at the scrum, but the home pack held firm to give their backs a perfect platform.
Tom James burst past Vincent Martin before beating Delon Armitage with a scoring pass to Halfpenny, who grazed the outside of the post with his conversion.
Toulon responded by flexing their muscles up front and gained a penalty from a powerful scrum that Wilkinson swept over in the tenth minute. He added a second moments later to hand Toulon the lead but missed the chance to extend it on 23 minutes.
Cardiff then lost centre Gavin Evans following a heavy blow to the head suffered in a collision with Delon Armitage that the Arms park faithful took objection to.
Halfpenny missed on 32 minutes but Alex Cuthbert threatened and the full-back landed a penalty on just before the break to hand Cardiff a surprise 8-6 lead at half-time.
That advantage last only two minutes of the second half after Scott Andrews was penalised for a high tackle on David Smith and Wilkinson put Toulon a point ahead.
Halfpenny against let Toulon off the hook, missing a third shot at goal on 50 minutes after he slipped as he kicked.
In a game of few scoring opportunities, Wilkinson and Halfpenny traded further kicks before Toulon finally breached Cardiff’s line on 64 minutes.
Replacement Pierrick Gunther broke through the heart of what had been a stubborn home defence. Matt Giteau stepped past one defender before Steffon Armitage stretched out to score.
Wilkinson converted and though Halfpenny’s third penalty set up a grandstand finish at 19-13 in the final seven minutes, Wilkinson secured Toulon’s win and denied Cardiff a losing bonus they felt they deserved.
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