David Young has selected three new recruits in the starting XV for Saturday's friendly
David Young has selected three new recruits in the starting XV for Saturday's friendly
Tom Davies, Michael Paterson and Tom Brown will all make their first starts for the Blues as they take on Exeter at Sandy Park in the first friendly match of the season, Saturday 21st August, 3pm K.O.
Speaking ahead of the match, Young said,
"In fairness the difficult part of pre season is filtering in players at different stages. Some of the players have been away on tour while others are coming back from injury."
"I'm pleased with the attitude and commitment of the players who came back after their break. They were all in good shape and I'm pleased with the professionalism that they showed during their time off."
"They've worked very hard on the conditioning front so we won't be lacking anything fitness wise."
"The rugby side has been difficult until the latter part of the month, purely on the numbers front, because the boys have been at different stages of pre season training but I've been pleased with the progress they've made."
"I don't expect us to be perfect against Exeter, it's still early, but I expect a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about getting back on the field which will make up for any shortcomings in preparation, however, I'm sure we will be a lot better against the Dragons."
"We are all looking forward to the match. Exeter have worked extremely hard to get up over the last couple of seasons. They have excellent facilities, I've never played there so am looking forward to it."
"We've put a bigger focus on this pre season, we've done a lot more running than we normally do, while also maintaining our physicality, so hopefully we will start in a far better position than we have in previous seasons."
"Everyone is aware that the start of the season is important to us and it's been our downfall in the Magners League is seasons gone by. Our mindset, I'd like to think will be different this year."
15 Chris Czekaj, 14 Richard Mustoe, 13 Gavin Evans, 12 Tom Shanklin, 11 Tom James, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Lloyd Williams
1 Tom Davies, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 3 John Yapp, 4 James Down, 5 Paul Tito, 6 Michael Paterson, 7 Sam Warburton, 8 Tom Brown
16 Kristian Dacey, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 Bryn Griffiths, 20 Maama Molitika, 21 Richie Rees, 22 Dan Parks, 23 Dafydd Hewitt, 24 Ben White, 25 Dan Fish, 26 James Loxton