Danny Wilson has called on Cardiff Blues to finish the Guinness PRO12 season on a high in what he expects to be a fierce Welsh derby against Newport Gwent Dragons.
The Blues travel to the Constructaquote Stadium in Caerphilly for the last encounter of the regular season and will be aiming to complete a second consecutive double over their rivals.
They go into the derby on the back of a scrappy home victory over Zebre but Wilson insists they must be mentally switched on for the unique encounter, which is being held in Caerphilly due to a fixture clash.
He said: “There was a first-half performance where we scored 23-points, we were playing some reasonable stuff and scored some good tries. We missed the opportunity to score a couple of others and then in the second-half we failed to perform at that level.
“Now we want to finish with an away win in Caerphilly. They will be fired up, there’s no doubt about that. They have some good quality rugby players, no matter how good or bad your form is, derbies are different.
“It’s a different intensity and you certainly can’t take any opposition lightly. Even this year, there have been some that have gone to form in derbies and others have gone against form.
“We will need to rock up mentally in the right place and fully anticipate a tough day in Caerphilly but hopefully one we can come out on top of.
“The atmosphere could be electric and I hope people turn up – both Blues and Dragons fans – and fill the ground for the last game of the season.
“It’s a unique position for the Dragons and Cardiff Blues. Rodney Parade drums up quite an atmosphere for home games, which is a big advantage for the Dragons and it will be interesting to see how Caerphilly goes.
“It will be quite a tightly-packed ground, it holds about 6,000, which I’m guessing they will fill and if you get 6,000 in a small ground the atmosphere will be great.”
Wilson has spotted improvements in the Dragons attacking game in recent weeks and he also anticipates a full blooded battle at the breakdown.
He continued: “Recently their attacking game, their shape and structure, and what they are trying to do has really improved. They ran the Scarlets pretty close, they were in the game up in Edinburgh and we are fully aware of the challenge, which will come.
“I expect the contact area to be fierce – one because our contact area against the Ospreys was at top end in terms of execution.
“The Dragons have a back-row with a real presence of the ball, like us, so it will be an interesting battle and one which could dictate.”