Blues stutter in (and thanks to) Ireland

Blues v Ulster
By
October 15 2006

Cardiff Blues suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Ulster at Ravenhill, though Andy Ireland must answer for a lot.

Despite getting the first score, and performing well in the first half, the Blues went down in uncompromising fashion 32-12.

 

However in the visiting side’s credit, Ulster’s man of the match was definitely referee Andy Ireland. The Scottish official has an appalling game, but a particularly pathetic 5 minutes cost the Blues effectively 12 points which turned the game.

 

Cardiff started very well, with Nick Robinson just missing a penalty attempt on 5 minutes, and a strong wave of attack started, and strongly featuring Mark Lewis, with Ed Fairhurst crossing for an unconverted try. Lewis, a powerful number 8, has impressed in recent weeks, and continues his run of form with an excellent first half.

 

And to be fair the first 20 minutes was all Cardiff, in fact the Ulster men were lucky to even get on the score sheet as club stalwarld, and thorn in every clubs side, David Humphreys slotted over a penalty quarter of an hour in.

 

But then the balance of the game swung dramatically. 26 minutes in, Paddy Wallace scored an all to easy finish after David Trimble went around Tom Shanklin. Humphreys was injured in the build-up and so duties kicking duties went momentarily to Wallace, however the 34-year old shortly returned to his feet to continue play. Wallace missed the conversion.

 

They furthered their lead as some very harsh refereeing decisions pilled pressure on the hard-working defence. Tom Shanklin was pinned by the linesman for unnecessary stamping, but a case of mistaken identity saw John Yapp receive 10 minutes in the bin.

 

After a number of penalties, Humphreys pinned the Blues back into their 22 and from the resulting line-out, Neil Best emerged from the rolling maul melee with the score. Humphreys missed the conversion.

 

Having made an impressive start, Dai Young was begging for the whistle to blow for half time after a shaky poor 2^nd quarter, although not helped by referee Ireland who was heavily influenced by the very unsporting home crowd.

 

Half Time

Ulster 13 Cardiff Blues 5

 

But if anyone was hoping for a replay of last weeks game, where the Blues came from behind in the first half to win, their hopes were quickly banished.

 

A very well taken try came shortly in the second half, a beautiful scissors move between Humphreys and Trimble saw the centre race over for a converted try.

 

Cardiff were reduced to 14 men for the second time as Scott Morgan was binned for punching as the pathetic decisions began kicking in. Thug Justin Garrison seemed to get away with everything despite being at the heart of the many fights that broke out. However, Morgan was singled out as the man who deserved some cooling off time.

 

But the Blues weren’t out of it just yet.

 

With 20 minutes to go the Blues were awarded a penalty, which they kicked to the corner and went for a driving maul from the lineout. Martyn Williams claimed a try that brought the Blues right back in it – or so we thought. Despite all sense, logic and clear visible proof, Ireland adjudged the try to be held up.

 

To really cap of a hard-done by 10 minutes, the Blues conceded a try from an attacking 5 metre scrum, with an 80-metre kick an chase effort having the bounce of the ball always in Ulster’s favour. Converted.

 

Then an almost identical attempt was given with David Trimble this time the benefactor. However this another terrible decision with Trimble a good 5 metres ahead of the player who kicked it to him in the length-of-the-field break. Converted.

 

Wayne Evans, a substitute for Fairhurst, then wriggled over well in injury time after a quick tap penalty by Dai Flannagan. The scrum half evaded 2 tackles before crashing down for his first try in a Blues shirt. Converted by Nick Macleod from out wide.

 

Final Score

 

Ulster 32 Cardiff Blues 12

 

It was a very poor 2^nd half by Cardiff, and I’m making no bones about it. But the game really hinged on that Martyn moment, and the ref got it bang wrong. He had an appalling game and was guilty of playing up to the vicious Ravenhill crowd on more occasions than I care to remember. The yellow cards seemed soft and biased, with Cardiff being judged the worst pat on seemingly all occasions. Refereeing is a difficult job, and sometimes it’s not always as easy as it seems on TV, but Dai Young must register an official complain about his performance today to stop this idiot controlling any more of our games.

 

theArmsPark.co.uk’s Man of the Match – Mark Lewis

Mark battled hard and was present in attack and defence, but inevitably was left battling alone. Not much to say about the squad other than they were rather lacklustre and really lacked a cutting edge. Lets hope it gets better come next week for Bourgoin away, another very tough test.