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Blues boss in positive mood

Blues boss in positive mood

Cardiff Blues boss Phil Davies says his side’s performance at Leinster last week has given him plenty of reasons to be positive prior to Sunday’s clash with Edinburgh.

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The Blues were beaten 34-20 by the reigning RaboDirect PRO12 Champions at the RDS but the showing was a big improvement on the previous weekend’s loss to Zebre.

The visitors were well in the hunt for a famous scalp midway through the second half before a brace of Leinster scores took the game beyond them in the Irish capital.

And Davies, who is in his second season at the helm in Cardiff, believes his team aren’t too far away from clicking as they prepare to welcome the struggling Scots to the Arms Park.

“The team performed really well against Leinster on Friday. We had a great level of intensity and physicality about us,” said Davies.

“We just need to be a little bit more clinical and take the opportunities that we’re undoubtedly creating on a regular basis.

“That’s the encouraging thing for us: we’ve got good physicality and we’re creating chances. The next stage is being more consistent in terms of finishing those chances off. If we can do that, we’ll be a handful.”

The Blues welcomed back Wales skipper Sam Warburton against Leinster after he recovered earlier than expected from the hamstring injury that ruled him out of the British & Irish Lions’ series decider in Australia in July.

Warburton’s return is another big boost for the Blues, who also saw fellow Lion Alex Cuthbert score a sensational solo try to threaten an upset.

“It’s important that the whole team is firing and it was great to have Sam back on Friday,” added Davies.

“The one thing we need is to grow as a group together. We haven’t had a lot of big-time experiences together as a group. Lots of our individual players have had those big experiences but the important thing is how we perform as a unit.

“We learned big lessons against Zebre and we put them into play against Leinste. We need physicality for 80 minutes and mentality for 80 minutes, and we have to keep that going, week in, week out.

“We have to perform this weekend against Edinburgh. We owe ourselves a performance at home and we owe our supporters a result as well so it’s a big, big game for us.”

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