Jamie Roberts powers past Clement Poitrenaud at the Millennium Stadium

Jamie Roberts says the Blues have what it takes to win the Heineken Cup after beating Toulouse in the quarter-final.

Roberts said: "Without a shadow of a doubt [we can win the Heineken Cup].

"If we can beat Toulouse on our home patch, we can beat anyone in Europe and we're going to take massive confidence from this game."

Roberts was overjoyed as the Blues held out against Toulouse's late onslaught for their 9-6 win that earned them a May semi-final date with Leicester.

He said: "It's one of the best feelings of my career to date. As a Cardiff side we've taken a step forward again."

Director of rugby Dai Young said: "We had to be bold and take the game to Toulouse and defend better than we had done all season.

606: DEBATE Cardiff will need to improve significantly if they're to have any chance of winning and in all honesty, I thought they were fairly lucky to go through Millsie1981

"Our kicking game and ball retention wasn't great at times, but we are in the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup.

"I am really pleased for the players - they have worked their socks off.

"Against the biggest team in Europe we stood up and were counted, but we are not the finished article.

"We put ourselves under pressure at times, but if we had 36,000 watching us, then it will be nice to push it even higher for the semi-final."

Blues skipper Paul Tito said: "We are pretty chuffed with ourselves, but we are not going to get carried away.

"As captain, I couldn't have asked for any more from the players - the performance showed the character of this team."

Man-of-the-match Gethin Jenkins said: "It's good to get to a semi-final and it's one better than we went last year. It was a boiling hot day and really tough on the lungs.

"I thought the front-five really worked our socks off all game.

"Gareth Williams and Paul Tito really worked hard chasing back for a few kicks. They're a great side, Toulouse, and we did really well to grind out a result.

"It just seemed as if there was wave after wave of attack."

Toulouse lock and former France international captain Fabien Pelous said: "I am disappointed above all, because we had the chances to win this game four or five times.

"There were too many errors in the first half, especially in the first 10 or 15 minutes when we were dominating in terms of territory.

"The Cardiff defence made it very hard for us to break the gain-line. It was very difficult to play our rugby today."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version