Young: We must be ruthless

Apr 6 2008 by Simon Roberts, Wales On Sunday

DAVID YOUNG leads his Blues on European rugby’s own Mission Impossible today – trying to win at Toulouse in front of a 35,000 sell-out crowd.

The three-times champions have lost just five times in 45 matches at Stade Ernest Wallon in 13 years of Heineken Cup rugby.

The ‘Real Madrid’ of European rugby have won six of their eight quarter-finals – a stage the Blues have not graced since 2001.

But Young’s mantra all week has been that the daunting trip to France doesn’t hold any fear for his side.

“It’s a big challenge, but Toulouse aren’t quite the team they were,” said Young.

“Some players have gone, they have had some injuries and I don’t think they are the formidable force they used to be.

“The worst thing we can do is give them too much respect and build them up, in our own minds, into something they are not.”

Young has a point – Toulouse may be appearing in their ninth quarter-final and lie second in France’s Top 14, but they are not the dominant force they were.

A side full of exciting young players, they are struggling for confidence, while the Blues arrive with bags of experience and having done better away from the Arms Park this season. They beat Bristol at the Memorial Ground and should have beaten Stade Francais in Paris in their pool matches.

Once such a soft touch in Europe, they have developed a resilience and hard edge.

“I have told the players, ‘Let’s make sure we aren’t kicking ourselves after the game’,” said Young.

“We don’t want to be rueing missed opportunities and the like on Sunday night. We have to make the most of what comes our way.

“We know we will create opportunities but Toulouse, because of the way they play, will give us opportunities. We have to take them and be ruthless.”

The Blues’ fall from grace since their solitary appearance (as Cardiff) in the 1996 Heineken Cup final against Toulouse at the old Arms Park has been startling.

The Blues have suffered from a potent mix of poor recruitment, a desperate lack of vision and just plain old-fashioned muddled thinking.

This, after all, is the rugby side based in the capital city of the nation widely regarded as the heart and soul of European rugby.

But under Young’s guidance, they have started to earn respectability, if not their pre-eminent status, in European circles.

Young is the first to admit the Blues are back where they belong.

“We want to be in the latter stages of Europe,” said Young. “Are we one of the top eight teams in Europe? Let’s be honest, I think we are still some way off that.

“This stage of Europe is where the players and myself want to be. I still believe we have some work to do.

“Just because you make a quarter-finals doesn’t mean you are one of the best eight teams in Europe.”

But think of the Blues or the old Cardiff club and you think of the great European battles against the likes of Toulouse and Bath in the nineties.

Still the only Welsh side to reach a European final, they have always been talked about, along with the likes of Toulouse, Munster and Leicester, as a traditional powerhouse of Europe.

But Young is blunt and to the point about his side’s past.

“History and tradition doesn’t do a lot for me,” said Young. “I think that has been half the problem with Cardiff and now the Blues.

“People have just expected, because of this tradition and history, that we have a divine right to be where we are now. We just haven’t been good enough.

“We haven’t had the tools to do the job. We are competitive but still need some luck against Toulouse.”

In his fifth season in charge at the Arms Park, Young has copped his fair share of unwarranted flak – but stuck to his principles and built a side very much in his own image.

Where the old Cardiff side was full of flaky big-time charlies with a high opinion of themselves, the current Blues line-up is an uncompromising but low-key outfit.

For Young, after having to deal with people calling for him to lose his job a few years ago, it must be a vindication to see the Blues in the quarter-finals of Europe.

“I am not going to take lot of credit for what has happened this season,” said Young. “I am not doing a lot different from what I did when I first started here.

“I just have better players to work with and players who are used to playing at a higher standard.

“They have tough mentality and a winning edge. There is no secret to all of this – if you want to be a great coach, get great players. It’s that simple.”

Young is being modest; he had to rip up a rotten rugby culture at the Arms Park when he took charge.

He also inherited one of the weakest squads to grace the capital city rugby side. The Blues were going nowhere, lacked leadership and he stepped in to fill the void.

He has brought some old-fashioned ‘valleys values’ to the table and the Blues now are closer in spirit to Pontypridd than the old self-style greatest club in the world, Cardiff.

“You try to bring a mindset as a coach,” said Young. “When I took this job I wanted the Blues to give everything, work hard and die for the shirt.

“I know we haven’t won anything and that means I haven’t achieved anything as a coach.

“My job is to get the best out of the players in the squad. The quality in the squad always determines what you will achieve.”

Young was in the last Cardiff club side to reach the quarter-finals in 2001.

They were, by common consent, the best side in the tournament that year but were sent packing with their tails between their legs by a rampant Gloucester at Kingsholm.

“That team under-achieved,” said Young “Look across the board; we had some really great players in that side.

“We under-achieved but this Blues team is a different animal. They have had to scrap and fight for everything.

“That has brought a toughness and togetherness.

“We are now a team willing to fight for each other. We don’t do the superstar mentality here. Nobody is better than anybody else here.”