The Cardiff Blues' training base in the Vale of Glamorgan has attracted an unusually level of media interest this week. It has had nothing to do with the Amlin Challenge Cup final against Toulon in Marseille tomorrow but everything to do with Cardiff City's Championship play-off final at Wembley against Blackpool today.
The Blues and City share facilities and have developed a close working relationship. "We see them on a daily basis and we will be cheering them on, even if it is from the south of France," the Blues' director of rugby, David Young, said. "A double this weekend would be a significant boost for sport in the city."
No Welsh team has won a European tournament. Cardiff contested the inaugural Heineken Cup final but since then only Pontypridd, who lost the 2002 Challenge Cup final to Sale in Oxford, have threatened to lift a trophy, although Caerphilly made the final of the short-lived repechage tournament, the European Shield in 2003, losing to Castres. Two players who were in that Pontypridd side line up for the Blues tomorrow, the prop Gethin Jenkins and the outside-half Ceri Sweeney. "The Challenge Cup was then very much the secondary tournament," said Jenkins. "Europe was all about the Heineken Cup, but that has changed.
"While we would rather be in Saturday's final in Paris, the Challenge Cup has been boosted by Heineken teams joining after the group stage," Jenkins said. "Two very good sides will be contesting the final before what will be a record crowd in the tournament."
Sweeney will be up against Jonny Wilkinson who has lost his place in the England side but remains an influential figure for Toulon who last week lost their Top 14 semi-final to Clermont Auvergne in extra-time. Toulon have played two Top 14 matches at Stade Velodrome this season, winning both."Jonny runs their game," he said. "We will have to keep a close eye on him. He has still got it and uses his experience to full advantage. We are coming up against a team that have spent big money to get where they are. People are expecting them to win but we are quietly confident that we have the ability to thwart them."
Wilkinson said that Toulon would not have a hangover after narrowly missing out on the Top 14 final. "We still have the chance to win something and that is all the motivation we need," he went on. "It would have been far worse had our season ended in that semi-final. It has been a long season but our squad is still physically and mentally fresh, ready for what will be a tough game against a side of real quality."The Blues have won their last eight away matches after an abject start to the campaign when they struggled to subdue teams in their new home, Cardiff City Stadium, never mind on the road. "We were missing a number of players then, but we were still underperforming," Young said. "We sat down and talked things through in December, setting out objectives for the rest of the season and the players have really turned things around.
"I would bill Sunday as the biggest game in the region's history.We were in the Heineken Cup semi-final last season but we now have the chance to win a trophy by defeating one of the top sides in Europe. We are effectively playing away, but we had to win at Wasps to get to the final and they had never lost a semi-final at home."
The Blues have named a team of 15 internationals with three more on the bench. If victory will not earn them the expected £90m Cardiff City would generate for reaching the Premier League, it would at least end Welsh rugby's drought in Europe.
