Blues coach Dai Young has hailed the extra dimension brought to his side by under-fire fly-half Sam Norton-Knight.

"Everyone knows we've got physicality coming down the middle but he gives us options with his wide pass to play a wider game," Young told BBC Sport.

Norton-Knight, a summer recruit from Australia, had a nightmare debut against Edinburgh and was restricted to bench roles in the following two games.

But he started and did well in Saturday's 19-15 win over the Scarlets.

"He did far better than in his first game and he's only going to get better every game," said Young.

606: DEBATE Can Norton-Knight make the Blues fly-half jersey his own?

"He controlled the game really well for 55 or 60 minutes, but then the whole team panicked and started to make a lot of mistakes.

"That doesn't help anybody - and especially not the 10."

The twice-capped Australia utility back, 25, has played much of his rugby with the Waratahs at full-back.

He has been charged with the thankless task of taking over the 10 jersey at the Blues from local favourite Nicky Robinson, who left for Gloucester in the summer after his best ever season at Cardiff Arms Park.

Norton-Knight was booed off after his debut against Edinburgh and has been fiercely criticised since, but Young believes that the fans will be won over.

He's got the distribution skills that give us the opportunity to mix the game up and his kicking game is something to be reckoned with Dai Young on Norton-Knight

"We have a pretty knowledgeable crowd who know that people have bad games," said Young.

"We're very pleased with [Norton-Knight] and he's only going to get better with experience.

"He's got the distribution skills that give us the opportunity to mix the game up and his kicking game is something to be reckoned with.

"He wasn't satisfied with his performance [against the Scarlets], but everyone could see he's going in the right direction and we're right behind him.

"Sam showed glimpses of how good he's going to be and he acquitted himself well before Ceri Sweeney came on and really saved the game for us with two really good turnovers."

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