Centre Ben Thomas has issued a call to arms to supporters ahead of their BKT United Rugby Championship clash against Munster on Friday night at the Arms Park.
After defeating Ospreys at Judgement Day X on Saturday, the Blue and Blacks are in sixth place in the table, with the top eight going through to the play-offs.
Cardiff have never reached the knockout stages of the competition, and Thomas wants a bumper Cardiff crowd to cheer on the side at their final home game of the season as they push for a play-off spot.
“It’s definitely going be a special day,” said Thomas.
“When you look at historically any big games you have here, games with something tangible on the end of them, our supporters tend to come out in force and I expect Friday to be something similar.
“It was the performance we needed. I know it wasn’t a whole 80 minute performance, but targeting that game and most of these tail-end games, it was important for us to get that result.
“It’s something we’ve spoken about a lot, as a playing group and as a whole club. This club’s never been in the playoffs, and now we’ve got the opportunity to do that and Judgement Day was definitely a step in the right direction.
“With the potential of this group now and probably that we’ve had over the years, we’ve probably underachieved, but to be in with a sniff of doing that now is a massive focus for us.”
It is potentially Cardiff’s biggest game of the season, and Thomas knows they will have to be at their best against a strong Munster team who are also in contention to reach the knockouts.
“We probably haven’t come that close to putting our best stuff out there this year. We’ve shown glimpses, but we haven’t put out our best performance for 80 minutes.
“That’s the challenge, after a big game last week and an important win. It’s backing it up and that’s what the coaches have challenged us as a playing group to do and something we plan on delivering.”
Thomas is expecting a challenge similar to previous matches against Munster.
“Pretty similar to how they’ve always been, they’re a very well drilled team.
“They play some pretty good rugby, a very high ball-moving team. They like to move the ball around the field, so it’ll probably be a different test to us to what we face at Judgement Day and hopefully it’s one that we’re up to.”
Thomas praised the contributions of fly-half Callum Sheedy in his first season with the club, and Cam Winnett who is top of the try assists in this season’s competition.
“Sheedy has been brilliant since joining us. It feels like he’s always been here weirdly, but it’s nice to play with him and for him to be playing for his own club.
“I know it means a lot to him and how much he’s enjoying it.
“Cam’s been brilliant. I think we’ve all seen what he can do and it’s just about trying to get him the ball as often as possible, in as much space as we can.”
With this being the final home game of the season, for some of the players it will be the last time they run out at the Arms Park and Thomas wants to send them off in style.
“We’ve got a pretty special group of boys here with a lot of boys moving on who’ve done a lot for the club, so it’s important for us to be able to send them off in the right way.
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