Brilliant Battling Blues

Brilliant Battling B
By Andrew Collins
December 17 2006

Cardiff battled in immense fashion but to no avail, as they went down 32 18 at Thommand Park.

Dai Young’s Blues came so close to stealing the headlines, before an 88^th minute try from Alan Quinlan stole the visitor’s losing bonus point, and claimed a 4^th try for the Munster men.

Cardiff did their fans proud with a monstrous defensive effort, and really didn’t deserve the 14 point deficit that the final score showed.

And indeed it was Cardiff who opened the match, after a shaky start by Nick Macleod. Ben Blair slotted over his first penalty on his second attempt, but thereafter it was a great attacking performance by the reigning champions.

Denis Leamy went over from a traditional Munster maul, albeit third time of asking, O’Gara converted. But their mentality was obvious from the start, choosing to go for the corner in all their penalties, rather than taking the 3 points. And to be fair, Cardiff frustrated the home side by preventing them crossing from the maul, at which Munster are so renowned.

But their 2^nd try was undeniable brilliance.

A cheeky grubber kick from Pieter Stringer put the Blues under pressure, with Mike Phillip’s having to tap the ball into touch and concede the throw in. But Stringer wasn’t done yet, with Cardiff getting back rather lazily, the elf-looking scrum half was wide awake. He saw Leamy’s run from deep, and took a quick line-out, with the massive back rower running in past debatably weak tackles, but in all honesty a great try.

Blair disappointingly missed a penalty attempt, but then traded 3 points with O’Gara before half time, for a 17-6 score.

But Cardiff got themselves well and truly back into the match when Jamie Robinson scored a sublime break away try. The ball went loose, and the centre, who’s in excellent form this year, got his foot to the ball first. He ran the length of the field to follow his kick up, but had a lot to do when the ball stopped short of the line. But a magnificent pick up and dive over put the scores up to 17-13, which didn’t reflect Munster’s dominance, but was probably deserved due to some awesome defending. Blair missed the resulting conversion.

But when Martyn Williams was sin binned right on the stroke of half time, O’Gara slotted over a penalty to take the half time scores to 20-13.

Half Time

Munster 20 Cardiff Blues 13

With Cardiff down to 14 men, they were always going to struggle in a packed Thommand Park, but to their credit, they battled well and were unlucky to concede Munster’s third try.

With literally seconds left of Williams’ 10 minute binning, Stringer disrupted Mike Phillips’ at our own scrum, and the red’s regained possession with Barry Murphy crossing for the heart-breaking score.

But Cardiff were by no means out of the match. Following his return, Martyn Williams played a pivotal role in getting the Blues back within 7. Mike Phillips’ initial break opened up the Munster defence, as the former Scarlet picked up at the base, and was eager to get the ball wide. Williams then performed a 1-2 with Gary Powell, who completed a magnificent pop pass in the return to Martyn, as Williams’ loop pass to Ben Blair looked enough to complete the score, but Blair played safe and gave another pass out to fan favourite, Mark Lewis, who had come on to replace the injured Deiniol Jones.

Though Blair missed the conversion, the Blues were looking good for their deficit.

And just for a second, every fan in Limerick or watching on Sky Sports thought that the Blues were back on level terms. A fabulous break was started by Martyn Williams, and carried on by the speedy Blair. So when his pass to Jamie Robinson put the centre in open space to the line, it seemed that Cardiff’s hard work would pay off, but somehow, not even Jamie himself knows how, but the reliable Welsh international dropped the pass!

And with that squandered chance, you had to feel the Limerick effect. Never have they lost in the Heineken Cup at that place, and indeed it oozes confidence and the phenomenal noise their tremendous crowds produce. But there were large parts of that match when even they were quieter than usual thanks to the brilliant battling Blues.

The final 15 minutes were absolutely dominated by Munster, but it was the visitors who claimed all the credit. Wave after wave after wave of Munster attacks couldn’t break down the boys, who were putting everything they had on the line. In fact throughout the course of the match Tom James, his replacement Marc Strchbina, Deiniol Jones and his replacement Mark Lewis all were forced off the pitch with injuries.

And with 87 minutes played, Cardiff trailed by just 7 points, a score line that reflected Munster’s ability but also the Blues hard work and tactical defensive play. So it was the bitterest pill to swallow when in the 88^th minute of the match, Munster got their 4^th, bonus point try and put 14 points between the two sides. But that was the very last touch of the match, and it will’ve been a killer to those boys who really did put every last drop into preventing the 4^th try, and coming away from Thommand with a bonus point themselves.

They did deserve something from that game, but instead have no more than a lot of credit, and another European lesson learnt.

Full Time

Munster 32 Cardiff Blues 18

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

Showed to all watching that he is still the best 7 in European rugby. At 33 he’s still plying his trade at the best level, and doing it better than any other. Lived on the edge for most of the match, but was so crucial in everything we did. His defence was great, and his ruthlessness at the breakdown was both intelligent and effective. Special mention must be given also to Stitch, Yapp and Jamie Robinson, who all tackled like they were possessed. A great team performance against the best in Europe.

Cardiff Blues: B Blair 7; T James 6, J Robinson 9, T Shanklin 8, C Czekaj 7; N Macleod 6, M Phillips 6; J Yapp 8, T Rhys Thomas 8, T Filise 7, B Davies 7, D Jones 7, S Morgan 7, M Williams 9, X Rush (capt) 7.

Replacements: Stcherbina for James (34) 9, G Williams for Thomas (58) 6, G. Powell for Filise (51) 7, Lewis for Jones (52) 7, N Robinson for Stcherbina (57) 6.