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Williams hopes to thrive off home support

First Team News | 8th October 2021


Lloyd Williams hopes Cardiff can thrive off home support as Saturday's clash against Vodacom Bulls kicks off a trio of URC fixtures at the Arms Park.

The Blue and Blacks got their campaign underway in style in front of home support, securing maximum points against Connacht on the opening weekend.

However, last week they suffered a narrow defeat to Ospreys despite some encouraging signs from Dai Young's side.

But the scrum half says Cardiff love to play in front of the Arms Park faithful as they look to build momentum over the next few weeks.

"When we played against Connacht, everyone could see how much the fans mean to us. We’re under no illusions that we missed that last year at times," said the Welsh international.

"It was great to have them back here and you can always depend on them being vocal and supportive.

"We love playing at the Arms Park. The ground suits the way we want to play the game.

"It’s an exciting prospect to be at home over the next three games but one that we really want to capitalise on.

"But we’re taking it one step at a time so it would be nice to have another home win over Bulls on Saturday.

"We’re looking to build on that again and home matches for everyone are ones you want to win.

"We feel like we’ve got things in order to do some damage away from home too.

"But whether we’re home or away, we like to think we can perform in a way which will result in victories.

"There were a lot of positives about the performance last week, despite the result against Ospreys.

"We’re looking to build on that and looking ahead to Bulls at home here on Saturday.

"We did everything we’d said we’d do in the match in terms of how we’d attack them. But unfortunately it didn’t come to fruition at times, although you could see what we were trying to do.

"On Monday it was nice to have a game-plan to revert back to and see why it didn’t work.

"We can take that onto this week and that’s exciting for us as players."

Vodacom Bulls will be the first South African opposition to visit Cardiff since the introduction of the four new sides.

Williams is positive they will be an exciting addition to the league and expects a thrilling encounter in the capital on Saturday.

"It’s very exciting and it’s great when teams enter the league. It brings a different dynamic, and the Cheetahs and Kings especially did that," added the scrum half.    

"We saw some brilliant attacking rugby from them at times. We’re expecting the same from these guys.

"That’s how they’ve grown up playing the game and it promises dry weather so they’ll want to attack against us.

"The great thing is that we want to do that too so it should make for a great match.

"It’s going to take a little bit of time to settle into the new league and they’re playing against teams they’ve never faced before.

"It’s a different dynamic for them too but the teams have welcomed them into the league and it should be great.

"We’ve looked at them over the last couple of games but ultimately it’s about building on what we’ve already put together this season."