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Cardiff Blues have been hit by travel trauma ahead of their crucial Guinness PRO14 clash with the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

Danny Wilson’s in-form team were due to fly out to South Africa from Heathrow at 9pm on Wednesday night.

They were scheduled to fly to Johannesburg and then get a connecting flight to Bloemfontein in the Free State.

But their flight out of Heathrow was delayed first by an hour and then by a further 20 hours!

They are now due to fly at 5pm on Thursday, having spent the night at a local hotel.

That means they will miss their scheduled connecting flight and are uncertain about how they will complete their journey when they arrive in South Africa.

They are hoping they will be able to get on another connecting flight, but the worst case scenario is they will be faced with a five or six hour bus journey for the final 250 miles between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.

Originally, they were due to arrive in Bloemfontein this morning, but now they won’t get there until tomorrow morning or maybe even tomorrow afternoon.

In all, they are set to be some 24 to 30 hours behind schedule.

It’s far from ideal preparation for the vital game against the Cheetahs which kicks off at 2pm on Saturday, British time, at the Toyota Stadium.

Both teams are vying for a place in the end-of-season PRO14 play-offs, which will feature the top three sides from each conference.

The Cheetahs currently lie third in Conference A, but the Blues are just five points behind.

So a win for Wilson’s men would set up a grandstand finish to the play-off battle with two more matches to play after this weekend.

The Blues are certainly in the form to pull off a victory having won their last eight matches in the league and Europe.

One of those wins was a 25-20 triumph over the Cheetahs at the Arms Park in February.

They extended their purple patch last weekend when they beat Edinburgh 20-6 at Murrayfield to set up a home Challenge Cup semi-final against Pau.