Josh Turnbull is confident that Cardiff Blues’ younger players can step up and make an impact, as John Mulvihill’s side look to bounce back from three consecutive defeats.
Benetton Rugby are the opposition at Rodney Parade this evening, with the Italians returning to action after two weeks of isolation, following a Covid outbreak within the squad. However, despite a boost with the likes of Willis Halaholo and Jarrod Evans returning to the matchday squad after being sidelined, Cardiff Blues are missing several senior players through international call-ups or injuries.
The international utility forward expects a tough challenge against an all-rounded Benetton side, but reveals that the squad have been focusing on improving their own performance ahead of Monday’s clash.
“It won’t be easy as you’re never quite sure what Benetton will bring to the game,” said Turnbull.
“They have the ability to throw the ball around a bit, but they also use their big scrum and driving line-outs, so they’re a tough team to play against.
“We’ve lost against them a couple of times in the past, but we need to focus on ourselves this week and what we’re able to do.
“If we perform to the level we know we can, then we can score a couple of good tries and hopefully win the game.
“There’s plenty of boys around the squad who can share the leadership responsibilities. There’s plenty of boys here who have a lot of experience.
“That’s the good thing about this group. We have a lot of young boys, but a big chunk of those have played more than 50 games for the region.
“You have Garyn Smith making his 100th appearance and Owen Lane hitting 50 appearances this week, so a lot of the young boys are having that exposure and experience.
“A lot of the boys are stepping up.”
Reflecting on the last few weeks, Turnbull believes his side need to build more pressure on the opposition defence, and in order to do that they must protect possession.
“We haven’t been applying enough pressure on the opposition. When we manage to go through the phases, that’s when you see the likes of Jarrod Evans, Owen Lane and Rey Lee-Lo creating some problems for the opposition defence.
“But at the moment, we’re not retaining the ball for long enough, and therefore we’re not building that pressure.
“We need to make things simpler for ourselves, and make it easier for us to play in the style that we want to play, especially in the opposition’s half.
“Against Edinburgh last week, we lost the ball too often on their 22, and we couldn’t put enough pressure on them to force a penalty or create space for a try.
“That was one of the messages that came out of the meetings this week. We’ve had a good week of hard work on the training ground and all the boys are on the same page.”