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Wilkinson, Spencer, Parks, Humphreys, Walder, Norton-Knight and Jackson. Of that bunch, Spencer, Walder, Norton-Knight and Jackson seem like the most realistic targets.http://www.walesonline.co.uk/rugbynation/r...91466-23046559/
WHO wears the number 10 shirt for the Blues at their new stadium at the start of next season is becoming a pressing question for the Arms Park hierarchy.
Nicky Robinson, the current incumbent of the fly-half position, is expected to follow his brother and end his spell in the capital.
Robinson junior, like his older brother who is set to join Toulon in France on a two-year deal, is being linked with a move to Sale Sharks or Worcester Warriors in the Guinness Premiership. The brothers, who have been the mainstay of the Blues for so long, may have decided to head to pastures new but it does leave a hole in the Blues armoury.
They have both been great servants and their decision to look for new challenges marks the end of an era at the Arms Park.
The Blues are understood to have talked to a whole host of possible number 10s for next season, but timing and wages have proved to be a stumbling block.
Carlos Spencer, the former All Black, Dan Parks, the Scotland and Glasgow outside-half, Ian Humphreys, the former Leicester and Ulster fly-half and Dave Walder of London Wasps, have all been targeted for the vacancy.
Spencer, who was christened 'King Carlos' by the Blues in Auckland, would've been a great marquee signing for Welsh rugby's own Blues.
But the Kiwi magician, who left Northampton Saints last month, has signed for Gloucester in the Guinness Premiership.
The 33-year-old, who won 35 caps for the All Blacks, may not be the player he was but he certainly would have sold tickets for the Blues as they move to their new home in Leckwith.
He wasn't the only one name on their short-list of candidates for the number 10 jersey, but was a very different player to the other fly-halves, the Blues have talked to.
Parks, Humphreys, the brother of Ireland and Ulster legend David, and Walder, all have reputations for being fly-half generals.
They are players who have big kicking games, bring the best out of the players around them and have the ability to close a game out.
None of them are as talented as Robinson but they do know how to 'win ugly' which is what any side with ambitions to win the Heineken Cup have to have the ability to do.
David Young, the Cardiff Blues coach, clearly sees the need to have a fly-half general who can get the best out of his star-studded back division. But all three possible candidates to replace Robinson decided against a move to Wales, with Parks staying put in Scotland and Humphreys deciding to remain in Belfast.
Walder, who was targeted by the Blues two years ago and is Danny Cipriani's understudy at Wasps, is expected to return to Newcastle.
The Blues have talked to Sam Norton-Knight, the New South Wales Warratahs three-quarter, about a move to the northern hemisphere.
But Young and the Blues are having to deal with a market which is pretty threadbare at the moment.
South Africa's star turns don't want to leave with the Lions tour in the summer and every Kiwi is either returning home or staying put with the World Cup in New Zealand in 2011.
So the Blues are dealing in a 'tight' marketplace and their best bet could be to look to the Guinness Premiership for a solution to the fly-half conundrum.
Clubs in England are all struggling financially and there is talk of wages been slashed across the board as they try to deal with the 'credit crunch'.
The Blues are also having to deal with the inflated deals being offered by the big French clubs to players in the northern and southern hemisphere.
But Young would have viewed with interest the news coming out of Saracens that Glen Jackson, the New Zealander, is one of a host a players being cut from Vicarage Road.
The 33-year-old, who was the Guinness Premiership player of the year recently, was the architect and chief tormentor when Sarries knocked the Ospreys out of last season's Heineken Cup quarter-finals.
But if the Blues, and chiefly Peter Thomas, their millionaire chairman, really wanted to make a statement of intent about his ambitions in Europe, there is one signing which would blow the mind of everybody in European rugby, let alone Welsh rugby.
That is a certain Jonny Wilkinson.
He may be expensive and maybe injury-prone but he would sell tickets and be the perfect fly-half general for the Blues.
It would make the signing of Kiwi legend Jonah Lomu a few seasons ago look like small beer. We can dream.[/b]
