Positive thinking ahead of trip to Galway

JOSH Turnbull says Cardiff Blues are thinking positive as they bid to reocrd their first win of the season at Connacht today.

The utility forward has started all three games of the campaign so far, having returned from a back injury, which kept him out for more than nine months.

And he insists his side are making good progress with their performances, despite last week’s one-point loss to Glasgow Warriors.

“The boys are pretty positive to be honest,” he said, ahead of the trip to Galway.

“We’ve progressively got better over the past three games.

“Obviously the Leinster game got away from us in the last 13 minutes and then last week I thought we had a better performance and thought we probably should have won that.

“We put ourselves in the right position throughout the game, put pressure on them, scored a good try and that’s something we’ve been building on over the past couple of weeks.

“This week is about preparing ourselves for another tough game out in Connacht and hopefully we can come away with the victory.

“The way they play the game make them a threat from all over the park. It probably tees us up pretty well to play Connacht, who play the ball from anywhere, from kick-offs they run from their own 22, they play wide,” he added on cardiffblues.com.

“But if we’re accurate and bring our defensive game, which has been getting better with the introduction of Shaun here, and if we bring that competitive edge in the contact area then I can’t see why we can’t come out of there with a victory.

“Howling winds, pouring down with rain, you know, it’s not a nice place to play, and it’s probably going to be no different on Friday. We got to put the conditions behind us - we’ve prepared for them, we just got to be mindful of them and prepare ourselves the best we can to go out there and play.”

Turnbull again lines up in a back row shorn of the likes of Ellis Jenkins and Sam Warburton as coach Danny Wilson makes three changes from the Glasgow defeat.

Wales international Kristian Dacey, who was voted Players’ Player of the Season and Fans’ Player of the Season last term, returns from injury.

He forms part of the front row with Bradley Thyer earning promotion from the bench and Tau Filise also returning.

Emergency loan signing flanker Olly Robinson, who joined the region on Monday, is poised to make his debut from the bench.

“At the moment, the weather prediction is pretty savage so we’ve been working on a game-play to deal as much with Connacht as with the weather,” said Blues boss Wilson. But you know that when you go out there, that’s probably a given.

“I believe they left two or three players who had played the first few games out of the trip to face Dragons, but we’re predicting some of those guys might come back in.

“It was a good win for Dragons to beat Connacht at home and hopefully we can follow suit.” The Blues’ backline remains untouched, meaning Rhun Williams – who beat more defenders than anyone in the last round of matches – goes again at fullback.

Ausssie fly-half Andrew Deegan makes his debut for Connacht, teaming up with the returning Lieran Marmion at half-back.