John Mulvihill has revealed that Tomos Williams is back in contention ahead of Sunday’s Guinness PRO14 encounter against Leinster Rugby at RDS Arena.
The scrum half has been out of action after suffering a shoulder injury in August’s defeat to Scarlets, but is expected to return to face the defending champions at the Irish capital.
However, the head coach was also left impressed with academy member Jamie Hill after the youngster made an impact in his first start during last week’s victory over Benetton Rugby.
The Australian said: “Jamie Hill played really well on his first start last week. It shows that backing some our young talent is the way to go.
“But the way he’s worked with Tomos and Lloyd over the last season and a half, it shows the quality that’s helped him develop his game.
“I’m looking forward to seeing both of them on the pitch this weekend.
“Tomos will be back this weekend, and Tomos is Tomos. You try not to coach him too much, he just goes out and does it.
“He’s got a really good rugby brain, a really good instinct for the game and we’re looking forward to seeing that come out on the weekend.”
Having bounced back from three consecutive defeats to seal a 22-5 win over Italian outfit Benetton, Muvlhill’s men will target a win against the defending champions, who remain undefeated in the Championship this season.
However, Mulvihill appreciates the quality of the Leinster side, but insists his team are not fazed by the challenge ahead in Dublin as they continue their hunt for a top three finish.
The head coach added: “Most teams are beaten before they get on the plane, but that certainly won’t be in our mindset this week.
“They’re a great team who have won 25 in a row but it means they might not get to 26.
“We need to go there looking for a massive result. We know that we can put them under pressure in certain areas, and really stress them across the 70 meters of the pitch.
“That’s something we’ll go there and do. We’re excited as a group and have had a couple of really good training days, albeit with a six day turnaround you have to cram everything into two days.
“We had final preparations at the Vale today and we looked pretty good.
“If you analyse Leinster’s game, and are worried about all the threat coming at you, you probably wouldn’t sleep the night before the match.
“So it’s more about what we can get right at our end and what we can do to stress them.
“They don’t put too many in the breakdowns, so they’ll fill the field. They have a big solid pack who can move the ball a bit better than Munster and Ulster, and they have a really smart kicking game.
“It won’t be the Leinster team who we faced two years ago and were fully stacked. This is Leinster with boys who are coming through their age grade and academy system and some who played A team rugby against us last year.
“There’s a good handful of pretty decent internationals in there as well so it’s an opportunity for us and we won’t be overawed when we get there, that’s for sure.
“We need to make sure that, after 20 minutes, we’re still in the game. We have managed that so far this season, and that was one of our major work-ons since the lockdown.
“It’s really important that you put yourself in the game. You can’t win the game in the first 20, but you can certainly lose it if you don’t front up, and that’s definitely true when you’re away from home.
“Our physicality and efforts have to be through the roof to give ourselves a chance of having our foot in the game.
“We want to go there to play an attacking style of rugby, hopefully the weather will hold up, and we’ll see what happens at the end.”
Cardiff Blues are currently missing 7 players from their back row ranks. James Botham, Shane Lewis-Hughes and Josh Navidi are all part of the Wales squad for the Autumn Nations Cup campaign, while the likes of Ellis Jenkins, Will Boyde, Olly Robinson and Sam Moore are currently sidelined with injuries.
However, their absence has presented opportunities for other players to step up and Mulvihill has faith in his youngsters’ ability to perform.
“We’ll be fully loaded with what we’ve got available at the moment. But saying that, our forward pack won’t be changing too much compared to the last couple of weeks,” said Mulvihill.
“We lost Jim last week, but James Ratti stepped up and Alun Lawrence will step up. Boys like Gwilym Bradley and Teddy Williams could come onto the bench, one for his second game and the other for his debut.
“The great thing about coaching is to be able to pull those guys in and congratulate them. They’ll ask what for and I can tell them they’ll play against Leinster this week.
“The enthusiasm is great and the thing with those guys is that they’ve got no fear. They’ve never been beaten by Leinster.
“For them, it’s another game and a massive opportunity. They’re really excited by it.
“There’s a couple of the boys that we’ve asked to trian full time with us because of injuries and representation in the Welsh squad.
“So boys like Alex Mann, Sean Moore and Gwilym Bradley have come in and stepped up in that area.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what he can bring for however long he’ll get on the pitch this weekend.
“But he’s certainly excited by the opportunity. He came through our exiles programme and lives here in Cardiff now.
“Credit to Gruff Rees and the academy have used that recruitment arm to find players in certain positions for us as well and that seems to be working.
“Gruff Rees, and Melon [Gethin Jenkins] in the past, and the coaches in the academy have ran a really healthy academy system.
“We’re starting to get exposure for those boys in there as well. We’ve had three or four debuts over the last few weeks and those boys haven’t let us down either.
“In one way it’s exciting and pleasing and we’re really proud of them, but you also have to put a team together which is a little bit more difficult.
“But to their credit, some of the boys that have come through like your Ben Murphy, James Ratti, Ben Thomas, Max Llewellyn, Jamie Hill and Keiron Assiratti are all stepping up and having a decent crack at this level.
“That’s awesome to see. You can’t beat youthful experience that’s for sure.”
