Blues dominate in cross-border victory

Blues beat champs
By Andrew Collins
October 1 2006

The Cardiff Blues sent out a message on Saturday, with a well deserved victory over the London Wasps.

The EDF Engery Cup kicked off this weekend, with the Blues and current champions Wasps the most mouth-watering prospect.

                             

The match, being covered by BBC1, kicked off at 2.30, and the sensible time brought out the 10,000+ fans in good spirit, and voice.

 

And what a game those fans were treated to. There was some very dire officiating, controversy, 5 tries and a tightly contested game of rugby.

 

Following a close opening 5 minutes, Cardiff were unlucky to be called back from a try scoring opportunity when the linesman adjudged that Ben Blair to have knocked on, that to the dismay of the crowd, who all saw Blair’s pass go back off a Wasps hand.

 

But they didn’t have too long to wait until the whitewash was crossed, though it did come from another controversial moment.

 

Mike Phillips made a break on the blind side of a ruck, but another touch judging error nearly stopped the Blues getting their score. The flag was raised signalling Phillips had stepped in touch before getting his pass away to nick Robinson, however it was overruled by referee Nigel Owens and play continued. A huge Robinson pass found Scott Morgan who did superbly well before feed Ben Blair as Cardiff came ever closer to the line. Blair got tackled short but managed to pop a pass to Gethin Jenkins who cross for a 6^th minute score.

 

Blair converted the first of his 18 points from the boot in what turned out to be a faultless display from the kiwi full back.

 

The game ebbed and flowed with the Blues being the more dominant of the two capital sides.

 

It was also encouraging to see that the Wasps had no answer to the Blues very resistant defence. Following 20 minutes of good tackling, it took just a moment of poor work for the London side to capitalise and make the game evens.

 

Firstly, World Cup winner Josh Lewsey danced his way through far too many powder puff tackles, before spinning his way over the try line on 24 minutes. That try was converted and put the scores level. To make things worse, the Wasps took the lead direct from the restart.

 

A deep kick into the 22 was caught by the Wasps who secured possession. But a moment of brilliance that followed led to a fabulous try. Outside half Staunton shaped up to kick clear from his 22, with 3 Blues players keen to make the charge down, but a stunning dummy and step left a rush of yellow and black shirts against Ben Blair. Blair made his tackle on Staunton, but the support was there for replacement centre Brookes to score their second try in as many minutes. Again converted by Staunton.

 

Blair closed the gap with a penalty 5 minutes later, but the home side took the lead when Chris Czekaj crossed after some great work by Martyn Williams.

 

But despite best efforts in the dying moments, the scorers were back even for half time when Staunton completed a range of kicking points by converting a drop goal with the last touch of first 40.

 

Half Time

Cardiff Blues 17 London Wasps 17

 

The 2^nd half opened just as the 1^st ended, with a drop goal, thankfully over the same posts as Nicky Robinson got on the score sheet for the first time since Blair’s arrival.

 

Blair and Staunton again exchanged penalties on 50 minutes, but Blair went one better 10 minutes later as Cardiff took a 6-point lead.

 

Fijian winger Mosese Luviatasau wasted a glorious try scoring opportunity moments after, dropping a simple pass that would’ve been a guaranteed 7 points. However he made up for it in brilliant fashion, finishing an excellent move started in the three-quarters before hurdling 35 metres to score in the corner.

 

Ben White later came on to make his debut, however it was rather short-lived as the Aussie lasted 2 minutes before being yellow carded, with under 10 minutes left.

 

Blair added a final penalty as fans were left rejoicing a glorious win, and a day that could well be remembered as the first day of the revolution.

 

Full Time

 

Cardiff Blues 36 Wasps 20

 

What a game, and what a result! The Blues proved the pundits wrong in front of 10,000 fans and a BBC1 audience.

 

The game was closely fought, but for once, we were left walking away as victors, rather than courageous losers.

 

They’re now sitting in good position for qualification. London Irish beat the Saracens, gaining a bonus point in the win, but they have to come to the Arms Park in the final round, so now a lot hangs on the away game at the Saracens.

 

theArmsPark.co.uk’s Man of the Match – Martyn Williams

I’m not sure how many of him there were yesterday but he seemed to be absolutely everywhere. He won ball, ran fantastically, hassled and harried the opposition and had possibly his best ever game in a Cardiff shirt. He looks in incredible form going which can only be good news for Dai Young and Gareth Jenkins.

 

However, to not mention a handful of other players would be criminal given their performances. Tom Shanklin tackled anything that moved yesterday, and ran with confidence and guile, looking back to his absolute best. Scott Morgan and Rob Sidoli were ever present around the pitch, plus having a 100% success rate in the line-out. But each and every player was better than their opposite number, and will have fully deserved their post-match pint.

 

Cardiff Blues
Ben Blair; Chris Czekaj, Tom Riley, Tom Shanklin, Mosese Luveitasau; Nicky Robinson, Mike Phillips; Gethin Jenkins, Rhys Thomas, Taufa'ao Filise, Deiniol Jones, Robert Sidoli, Scott Morgan, Martyn Williams, Mark Lewis.

Gary Powell, Duane Goodfield, James Goode, Ed Fairhurst, Ben White, Nick Macleod, Dai Flannigan.