return to New Zealand before the end of the season, with "The Chief" and Paul John once more taking charge as caretaker coaches through to the end of the season. Danny Wilson years After three chaotic seasons, Cardiff were once again looking for a new coach. They now turned to the Bristol Bears assistant Danny Wilson. Wilson had begun his coaching career in the Cardiff Blues academy and had established a strong reputation as a forward specialist, and as Wales U20s Head coach. Dale McIntosh - who had applied for the job himself - would leave soon after and be replaced as defence coach by former rugby league man Graham Steadman. Billy Millard, who had been backs coach under Dai Young, also returned to take up the role of General Manager, a role designed to enable Wilson to focus on hand on coaching over "desk work". Wilson found himself having to rebuild a squad that by then was a hotch potch of signings from various coaches. His team initially went on a nine match losing run. But in the second half of the season, Wilson had begun turning the team's fortunes around. An impressive away win against Scarlets was the high point in a run of strong performances that suggested Wilson was bringing much needed stability to the club. For his second season, Wilson was able to add strong new signings like Willis Halaholo and Nick Williams as well as replace Paul John with his former Bristol colleague Matt Sherratt. Wilson also began bringing through a group of highly promising young players from the academy, including Rhun Williams, Seb Davies, Jarrod Evans and Tomos Williams. Second season injury crisis However, after a promising start to Wilson's second season, the team experienced a raft of injuries, beginning with a serious injury to fan favourite Dan Fish which would keep him out of rugby for much of the next three years. Key players including star outside half Anscombe, and much of the club's stable of backrow talents were also made unavailable through injury. Nicky Robinson was called out of retirement as an emergency outside half signing and Sion Bennett also had to be signed as an emergency openside flanker due to the number of injuries in what was considered Cardiff Blues's strongest position. Wilson's second season had proven to be disappointing. But as players returned from injury, performances (particularly a thumping 35-17