The team have played just one game in the last 40 days because of Covid
CARDIFF Rugby travel to South Africa today to play the Emirates Lions on Sunday, March 13 and the DHL Stormers on Sunday, March 20.
Covid disruption has meant that by Sunday, the Blue and Blacks will have played just one game in the last 40 days — a heavy defeat to Ulster.
Form is therefore an unknown for 13th-placed Cardiff.
Barring their historic win over Leinster on January 29, Cardiff fans have to go back to October 23 to remember their side winning a match, defeating the Dragons 31-29.
Cardiff would have expected a win against last-placed Zebre last week, but the match was postponed due to Covid.
The Lions meanwhile are on a nine-game losing streak in all competitions.
Sitting in 14th with just two wins from 10 games, The Lions will be desperate to get a result in front of home fans on Sunday.
The Stormers are above Cardiff in ninth position but have played two more games.
Overall, the Irish provinces continue to dominate the table with Leinster in first, Ulster second and Munster third.
Team News
Cardiff
Cardiff flanker Josh Navidi has been called up to the Wales squad for the remainder of the Six Nations campaign. Navidi made his return from shoulder injury last Friday playing 80 minutes against Ulster.
Controversially, Ellis Jenkins has been released by Wayne Pivac to travel to South Africa with the Blue and Blacks. After a career threatening injury in 2018, the flanker was praised for battling back into the Wales team in the Autumn, where he skippered Wales to wins over Fiji and Australia.
Lions
Scrum half Morne van den Bergh is fresh from an excellent performance against Leinster when the Lions almost upset the table-topping Irish side.
Van den Bergh partners the experienced Fred Zeilinga at outside-half who is top scorer for his side this year in the United Rugby Championship. This pairing will have to be at their best to get the Lions attack functioning against Cardiff.
Fan Prediction
Cardiff Rugby fan Jak Smith, 24, from Abergavenny, said: “I think if we can adjust we might win, they’re a bit rubbish at the moment but so are we. But we do have Ellis Jenkins back.
“I’d call a narrow Cardiff win, three to four tries each and won on kicks.”
The last time Cardiff travelled to South Africa they ended up stranded after the emergence of the Omicron variant. Eventually a chartered flight was organised, but players and staff had to quarantine for 10 days in England on arrival.
You can watch the game on S4C or Premier Sports.
