Reasons? Well Neil Jenkins hitting the form of his life is an obvious bonus and Pieter Muller has done wonders for

“Reasons? Well, Neil Jenkins hitting the form of his life is an obvious bonus, and Pieter Muller has done wonders for our midfield He’s a hard man, is Pieter, both physically and up top He has that Springbok mindset. I’ve played with big, tough-nut centres before – Simon Davies at Llanelli could rattle a few bones – but Pieter has great hands and superb touch, in addition to all that iron. He’s a No 8’s dream, because he gives you so many extra yards, so many targets to hit.”He’s exactly the sort of player we need at Cardiff, because everyone wants to give us a thrashing. It’s not a new thing; back in the days before leagues, when the old Merit Table system was still in place, Cardiff were always the team to beat. You looked for their result first, hoping they had come a cropper. That mentality is still there, and everyone who plays for Cardiff is aware of it.

How do you cope? By being that bit smarter, that bit more motivated, that bit more composed.”And those are the qualities we’ll need at Gloucester, because Kingsholm is one tough place to win. Llanelli blew Gloucester away in the first 20 minutes of their big Heineken match a couple of weeks ago, but they didn’t go home with a victory, did they? I don’t think the Kingsholm surface is the best, but it suits Gloucester’s forward-based game. What is more, the hostility of the Shed feeds the Gloucester soul I’m looking forward to it.. can’t wait, in fact. It’s the kind of game I’d almost given up on.”That Cardiff stuck by a non-functioning, non-contributing forward for as long as they did says something about them; certainly, the “Tale of the Tarw” flies in the face of the widely held theory that the capital club are a mercenary bunch, prepared to buy success if they cannot win it on the level. He may not add to his 41 caps, and Quinnell may surpass his achievement during the course of the forthcoming Six Nations, but Lewis is probably the more fulfilled man right now.

He has descended into the black pit and emerged into the sunlight, having learned much about faith, hope and rugby charity along the way.. The health and safety notice pinned to the back wall of the Kingsholm Shed and aimed at visiting teams – “For the sake of your family, don’t lie on the ball” – disappeared some years ago. If the Cherry and White masses are of a mind to produce a replacement to mark this afternoon’s Heineken Cup quarter-final with Cardiff, their new poster should read rather differently. The health and safety notice pinned to the back wall of the Kingsholm Shed and aimed at visiting teams – “For the sake of your family, don’t lie on the ball” – disappeared some years ago. If the Cherry and White masses are of a mind to produce a replacement to mark this afternoon’s Heineken Cup quarter-final with Cardiff, their new poster should read rather differently.
Something along these lines sounds about right: “For the sake of our future in Europe, boys, lie all over the bloody thing for as long as you possibly can.”Gloucester have one chance, and one chance only, of advancing to the last four of the most demanding club competition in world rugby at their first attempt, and it has very little to do with numbers nine to 15. Should Kingsley Jones and his rough handful of a pack succeed in slowing up the game and giving the travelling Welshmen what for amid the hand-to-hand combat, the West Countrymen may just live to fight another day.

But if the Cardiff backs – Rob Howley, Pieter Muller, Jamie Robinson, Gareth Thomas and, crucially, Neil Jenkins – get a purchase on proceedings, it will be a case of lights out in the Cotswolds.While Cardiff can boast a genuine cutting edge – the men of Ulster are still trying to come to terms with the runaround they received at the Arms Park recently – Gloucester possess a back-line as sharp as a lump hammer. Their midfield struggled for fluency in the Premiership matches either side of Christmas, and struggled full stop in the pivotal Heineken Cup Pool Five match with Llanelli a fortnight ago. Not even Jason Little, a former Wallaby and one of the finest outside centres of his generation, has been able to make sense of the shambles surrounding him.Philippe Saint-Andre, the Gloucester coach, may tinker with his formation by giving the one-dimensional Chris Yates the heave-ho and pairing Little and Terry Fanolua in midfield But the words “Titanic” and “deckchairs” spring to mind. When all is said and done, it will be down to the heavy mob, which should be bolstered by the return of the Samoan No 8 Junior Paramore, back in the flow after a family bereavement “This is a tough ask for us,” acknowledged Jones yesterday. “But we’re under less pressure than before the Llanelli match, and Cardiff may not be the best of travellers.” That much goes for Heineken Cup quarter-finalists in general. In 16 last-eight ties played in this competition since it became a pan-European event in 1996, only two French clubs, Toulouse and Brive, have won on the road.Cardiff themselves have failed, both at Bath and, notoriously, at Llanelli last season. Toulouse, Bath, Leicester, Munster, Stade Français and Wasps have also finished second on other people’s mudheaps.