A case of good news/bad news for Cardiff Blues fans right now. The good news is that Richie Rees and Lloyd Williams are on the come back trail, both completing training yesterday (Tuesday). The bad news is that it only gives them a couple of days to prove their fitness to Dai Young.
For most teams that have a 46 cap international and a British Lion waiting to come into the team this wouldn’t be a problem. But this is Gareth Cooper and his fall from grace over the last few years has been impressive.
I used to be a big fan, I considered him, at one point, a better prospect than Peel. I was wrong. Last week, for instance, Cooper was very, very poor. Yes he hasn’t played much by the way of rugby in a long time, but against Connacht he was slow, his service was poor and his organisation average at best.
People considered Dan Parks’ game quite poor in that game, and he was playing it far safer than he should have, but given the regular poor service and slow ball provided by Gareth Cooper he often didn’t have much by way of options.
Decisions
Personally I hope he will improve again, that he can find form. What seems to be his major problem is decision making – taking too long to make it and regularly making the wrong one.
Which leaves Dai Young with a decision. Does he pick an out of form scrum half who looked woeful last game, or does he bring in a player who has only managed a couple of training sessions (in the case of Richie Rees, for a month)?
It’s a tough call – and an important one, as without fast, accurate ball Parks is unlikely to play anything like adventurous enough to make the most of the very talented backline outside of him
Chat about what you would do if you were Dai Young here
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