Ospreys 26 Cardiff Blues 0
Friday 1st January 2010, Liberty Stadium
Ben Blair kicked off the second festive derby match for the Blues who showed their intent with some strong running threatening the Ospreys in their own twenty-two early on. However the Ospreys defence held their line.
The Blues then put pressure on themselves with Mustoe knocking the ball on just outside their twenty two. The Ospreys attacked but eventually Biggar resorted to kicking a neat drop goal for the first points of the evening. Blair was unlucky not to level the scores with a long range penalty moments later.
James Jones awarded the Ospreys another penalty against Robin Sowden Taylor for not rolling away, despite him being on his feet, but Biggar’s effort drifted wide. However, the score soon came when Biggar chipped through, the ball was turned over in the ruck and Januarie spread the ball out to Bishop who fed Walker to touch down in the corner. Biggar missed the conversion.
The second try came from a scrum with Biggar breaking cleaning through and showing great skill to offload. The ball was worked well through Byrne, Bishop and Parker before Walker again dived over in the corner for his second. Biggar again was wide with the conversion.
A late flourish by the Blues at the tail of the first half saw Mustoe nearly score in the corner following some good work by Lulalala and Rush, but the score remained 13-0 to the Swansea based region.
Half Time Ospreys 13 Cardiff Blues 0
The Ospreys were first on the scoreboard again when the Blues were penalised for not rolling away and Biggar converted. Blair this time hit the upright with his effort moments later.
The Blues however were stringing some nice phases together with Laulala offloading well in the tackle and the forwards driving well from the rucks, but James Jones again penalised the Blues for stamping in the ruck after the Ospreys were penalised for not rolling away. To make matters worse Gary Powell was sent to the sin bin and Biggar converted.
The home side were dominating and came close to scoring again with Bishop being driven 20 yard to within inches of the Blues try line. They were awarded a penalty and passed out to the blind side where Ryan Jones crashed over. Biggar added the difficult conversion.
The Blues came close when Richie Rees did well to offload following poor ball from the lineout and Gareth Williams chipped ahead for Paul Tito, who sprinted for the try line, but was just beaten by Byrne who took the ball into touch. The Blues drove from the lineout but again they failed to capitalise when this time Ben White knocked on.
It was a frustrating evening for the Blues, who had played so well in the second half against the Dragons only a few days before, as they left the Liberty empty handed despite a late flourish.
Attendance 14,476
Cardiff Blues 15 Ben Blair 76off 14 Richard Mustoe 13 Casey Laulala 12 Tom Shanklin 33off 11 Tom James 10 Sam Norton-Knight 9 Richie Rees 76off
8 Xavier Rush 7 Robin Sowden Taylor 40off 6 Sam Warburton 76off 5 Scott Morgan 55off 4 Bradley Davies 3 Gary Powell 67off 2 T Rhys Thomas 65off 1 Gethin Jenkins (c)
16 Gareth Williams 65on 17 Taufa’au Filise 67on 18 Paul Tito 55on 19 Ben White 40on 20 Gareth Cooper 76on 21 Ceri Sweeney 76on 22 Gareth Thomas 33on
Yellow Card Gary Powell
Referee James Jones
Cardiff Blues
Try
Penalty
Con
D/Goal
Ospreys
Try Walker x 2 Jones x 1
Penalty Biggar x 2
Con Biggar x 1
D/Goal Biggar x 1