{"id":25137,"date":"2018-02-13T12:59:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=25137"},"modified":"2018-02-13T12:59:48","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:59:48","slug":"blues-looking-strengthen-play-off-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/13\/blues-looking-strengthen-play-off-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues looking to strengthen hopes of play-off place"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">BACK to back victories could close the gap to European rugby.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Away from the off-field turmoil over the future of Arms Park, the Cardiff Blues have been going well on the field, pulling off a solid victory in their first Pro14 match against South African opposition, Cheetahs.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saturday\u2019s opposition, Munster, will be a little more familiar to the Blues but an equally challenging fixture. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the reverse fixture, the Blues were comprehensively beaten by 39 points to 16, despite a stuttering start from the home side.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Irish outfit have had the edge historically, winning 20 of their past 31 meetings. They also come off strong form, comfortably disposing of Zebre and Castres.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Defensive duties will come under scrutiny for Cardiff. Their points difference in the Pro14 reads -42. Munster, on the other hand, have a +178 points difference in the competition.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blues have a lot to play for however. A victory could close the gap to Cheetahs in third and keep them within touching distance of a play-off berth.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Danny Wilson, Blues&#8217; head coach, will be aware of the challenge his side faces and will be hoping for a strong defensive performance to repel Munster\u2019s attacking danger.<\/span><br \/>\n<strong>Kick off is at 5.30pm.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BACK to back victories could close the gap to European rugby. Away from the off-field turmoil over the future of Arms Park, the Cardiff Blues have been going well on the field, pulling off a solid victory in their first Pro14 match against South African opposition, Cheetahs. Saturday\u2019s opposition, Munster, will be a little more familiar to the Blues but an equally challenging fixture. In the reverse fixture, the Blues were comprehensively beaten by 39 points to 16, despite a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":23255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[1875,5566,4013,5567,5568],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-25137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby","tag-blues","tag-cheetahs","tag-danny-wilson","tag-munster","tag-pro14"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blues looking to strengthen hopes of play-off place - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/13\/blues-looking-strengthen-play-off-chances\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blues looking to strengthen hopes of play-off place - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BACK to back victories could close the gap to European rugby. Away from the off-field turmoil over the future of Arms Park, the Cardiff Blues have been going well on the field, pulling off a solid victory in their first Pro14 match against South African opposition, Cheetahs. Saturday\u2019s opposition, Munster, will be a little more familiar to the Blues but an equally challenging fixture. 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