Edinburgh 11 Cardiff Blues 16
Friday 4 March 2011, 7.05pm kick off
The Blues got off to a lively start and it seemed as if they had a clear try scoring opportunity when Martyn Williams found some space on the left hand side. The Blues flanker drew the full back and passed to Leigh Halfpenny who failed to hold onto the ball with nobody in front of him.
However, the Blues winger was back to his best with a mazy run that saw the Blues move into the Edinburgh twenty two and spread the ball to Mustoe who nearly squeezed in at the corner.
The Blues were enjoying most of possession and territory in opening quarter but despite their efforts still didn’t have any points on the board. However, Halfpenny slotted a long rage effort on 30 minutes to wake up the scoreboard attendant and a few minutes later the Blues scored again.
The forwards drove well to within a yard of the Edinburgh tryline and from the base of the ruck a lovely flip pass from Martyn Williams saw Rush charge and offload superbly in the tackle to put Czekaj in under the posts. Halfpenny’s conversion put the half time score at 10-0 to the Blues.
Half time Edinburgh 0 Cardiff Blues 10
Blair got Edinburgh’s first points early on in the second half with a straightforward penalty but Halfpenny kicked an equally simple one on 50 minutes.
It was a match that lacked any spark and this was reflected on the scoreboard. Both teams seemed to be putting in aimless kicks that didn’t achieve much.
Halfpenny landed a further penalty to stretch the Blues lead but Edinburgh nearly struck back with Visser being forced into touch in the corner following a good break by Laidlaw. They were awarded a penalty moments later that Blair converted, however it was a totally lacklustre match and despite Visser’s last minute try the Blues secured the victory that saw them move back into the top four.
Cardiff Blues: 15 Chris Czekaj 14 Leigh Halfpenny 13 Casey Laulala (74off) 12 Dafydd Hewitt 11 Richard Mustoe 10 Ceri Sweeney (67off) 9 Tom Slater
8 Xavier Rush 7 Martyn Williams 6 Maama Molitika (54off) 5 Paul Tito (c) 4 Deiniol Jones (19off) 3 Scott Andrews (67off) 2 T Rhys Thomas (67off) 1 John Yapp (60off)
16 Gareth Williams (67on) 17 Sam Hobbs (67on) 18 Fau Filise (60on)19 Michael Paterson (19on) 20 Andries Pretorius (54on) 21 Tom Rowlands 22 Gareth Davies (67on) 23 Gavin Evans (74on)
Edinburgh: 15 Jim Thompson 14 Simon Webster 13 Ben Cairns 12 James King 11 Tim Visser 10 David Blair 9 Greig Laidlaw (C)
1 Lewis Niven 2 Andrew Kelly 3 Geoff Cross 4 Esteban Lozada 5 Steven Turnbull 6 David Denton 8 Netani Talei 7 Struan Dewar
16 Alun Walker 17 Kyle Traynor 18 David Young 19 Scott MacLeod 20 Scott Newlands 21 Ross Samson 22 Tom Brown 23 Andrew Turnbull
Cardiff Blues
Tries Czekaj x 1
Pen Halfpenny x 3
Con Halfpenny x 1
D/G
Edinburgh
Tries Visser x 1
Pen D Blair x 2
Con
D/G
Yellow Card:
Attendance: 1,776
Referee: David Wilkinson