After a slow start, Danny Wilson’s men were one of the competition’s form sides during the second half of the campaign, narrowly missing out on a top-six finish and European Champions Cup qualification. Having added the likes of Matthew Morgan, Rhys Gill, Nick Williams and Kirby Myhill, hopes are high for a strong campaign.
The Blues get under way when they host Edinburgh on Saturday before going onto face Munster, Glasgow and Zebre in the following weeks. Having left themselves too much to do after winning just one of their first eight games last season, Wales international Williams knows how important it is to avoid a repeat.
“We were pretty pleased with how things went during the second half of the season, we had a really good run of form and strung some results together,” said Williams. “We definitely want to carry that into the new season and make sure we capitalise on some of that momentum we managed to build up.
“We had a poor start to last season and we ended up leaving ourselves with far too much to do when it came to the play-offs or European qualification. We do not want to do that again, we want to progress from last year and try and get into that top six if not the play-offs, so we know how important it is to get a positive start.”