Lloyd Williams insists Cardiff Blues are determined to go all out for victory in the final two games of the season, as they prepare for the Judgement Day clash against Ospreys on Saturday.
Danny Wilson’s side head into the final match of the regular Guinness PRO14 campaign having already secured a place in next season’s Champions Cup, while they also sealed a place in the Challenge Cup final, where they will take on Gloucester at Bilbao on May 11.
The scrum-half was a try scorer in last year’s bonus point win at the Principality Stadium, and he expects their rivals to come out all guns blazing on Saturday.
“If we can beat the Ospreys, there’s not much better platform to have and give us a boost towards that final. There’s only two games to go, so it’s about emptying the tank now,” said Williams.
“We’re focused on winning the last two games of the year. If we do, it would be a great way to cap off the season.
“The Challenge Cup final is in two weeks time so we’ll put that to the back of our minds for now. We’re fully focused on how to beat the Ospreys.
“They want a statement game and this will be a big occasion.
“Looking at the team they put out against Zebre last week, they’ve obviously rested a lot of players and they’ll be coming for this game.
“For some reason, we caught them unaware last season and they didn’t have a Plan B. That was last year, and this is a new and different occasion all over again.
“It was a great day last year. We played some really good stuff and got off to a good start, which allowed momentum to build throughout the game. We’d like to do the same again this year.”
Williams is pleased to see the progress made by his side over the season, and the semi final win over Pau stands out as one of many highlights over the course of the campaign.
The Welsh international said: “It’s great to have secured Champions Cup back to Cardiff Blues. Last time we were in the competition, we gave a good account of ourselves and we’ll definitely look to do that next year. But we’ve got jobs to do before then.
“We’ve come to our own this year. We had a tough start, especially after losing to Edinburgh, and then had to go away to the Irish provinces. When you’re losing, the last places you want to visit is the Irish teams because they’re so strong at home.
“We really turned a corner, and used Europe to get ourselves out of the rut. We’ve been on a role since then, playing really good stuff and even when we haven’t won it’s been close.
“It was great to see the Arms Park the way it was for the semi final. It was heaving!
“It would be nice to be able to see it like that on a more regular basis and the only thing that will do that is performances on-the-field.
“It was great to see, it was a brilliant atmosphere and all the players relished playing in front of it.”