Danny Wilson is looking forward to a memorable occasion at the Cardiff Arms Park, after his side secured a spot in the Challenge Cup semi final.
Tries from Blaine Scully and Ellis Jenkins were enough to see Wales’ Capital Region claim a 20-6 victory over Edinburgh and progress to the final four, where they will host French outfit, Pau.
Before the semi-final encounter, the Blues face a two-week trip to South Africa, with crucial PRO14 fixtures against Toyota Cheetahs and Southern Kings on the agenda.
With Scarlets seeing off La Rochelle in the Champions Cup on Friday night, Cardiff Blues’ victory capped off a memorable weekend for Welsh rugby.
Wilson’s side are now on an eight-game winning streak in European and domestic competitions, and the head coach is delighted to head to the Rainbow Nation with momentum on their side.
“It will be great to be back at the Arms Park, because Ulster last week could’ve been our last game there for the season,” said Wilson.
“It’s great to go back there now to play in a semi final, it will be a great day out for everybody and hopefully we can pack out the Arms Park.
“We’re at home, we’re on a roll and hopefully, if we can get out of South Africa without too many injuries, we can have a good crack at that game against Pau.
“Ultimately we’ve dug in, stuck to our task and come away with another win. That’s eight wins on the bounce in Europe and the PRO14, and we’ve won 10 out of the last 12 games.
“From a form point-of-view we’re in a decent place and hopefully we can roll that into South Africa.
“We’re winning games of rugby and that breeds confidence and hopefully we can keep that going.
“It was great to see the Scarlets win at home on Friday night, an it was a fantastic performance and result for them and Welsh rugby. For us to come away from home and do the same is great.
“We’re both in the semi final of European competitions and it’s fantastic for Welsh rugby. Let’s hope both of us can kick on to the final and have a good day out in Bilbao, but we’ve both got pretty tough games ahead of us.”
With Edinburgh looking for a way back into the game, Cardiff Blues faced a period of sustained defensive pressure in the latter stages, and the task became tougher as Ellis Jenkins was sent to the sin bin for offside.
Wilson was delighted with the side’s overall performance at the Scottish capital, and praised his coaching staff for their work in the build-up.
Wilson said: “I want to give big credit to Matt Sherratt, because a lot of what was seen and executed tonight was down to him in terms of kicking opportunities behind their blitz, and also to the players for executing that.
“Respect to Edinburgh, because down the middle of the park, in-between the 15s, their defence is extremely difficult to break down and we had to try to do something slightly different and today it worked.
“I’ve also got to give big credit to the players, defensively, and also to Shaun Edwards and Richard Hodges, because I thought our defence today was outstanding.
“We wanted to bring that big contact area presence, and on the whole we got huge change out of it, as we did with the line-speed and big collisions, which caused Edinburgh problems.
“We all know how well Edinburgh have been playing, winning six on the bounce coming into this game. They were at home so there was always going to be patches in the game where we would be under immense pressure.
“The yellow card made it a testing period for us and in the end we defended that extremely well.”