Northampton Saints 23 Cardiff Blues 15
Saturday 11 December, 2010, 17.45 Franklins Gardens
It was a great start to the Round 3 match by Blues, with Tito winning clean line out ball, and Rush and Molitika crashing through the midfield, taking out defenders. Eventually the Blues won a penalty that Parks converted.
The Blues were having most of the possession early on with Parks looking to orchestrate things. However, they were losing ball on their own lineouts after the promising start.
There then followed a period of relentless attack by Northampton stretching the Blues defence. The Blues dug deep and managed to hold Saints out only a yard out in the right hand corner following a strong run by Saints prop Tonga’Uiha. Saints were awarded a series of scrums before they eventually sent the ball left. Paul Diggin scored in the corner after receiving a pass by former Blues scrum half, Ryan Powell. Myler converted.
The Blues were again under pressure, but eventually a Parks penalty eased them as he kicked to Northampton twenty two, but again the Saints stole the lineout ball. Northampton then were penalised for holding on in the ruck 45 yards out and Parks again converted to narrow the gap to just one point.
Minutes later the Blues were awarded a further penalty for Northampton diving into a ruck. Parks kept his 100% record to put the Blues ahead 5 minutes from half time and the Blues had a further advantage when Downey was yellow carded for a high tackle on Tom James after the flying winger had gone on a massy run. Parks extended the lead further with the long distance effort.
However, the advantage was lost when the Blues lost Filise to the sin bin harshly, when it appeared that Paul Tito had accidentally kicked the ball out of the ruck and Myler narrowed the gap with his effort.
Half time Northampton Saints 10 Cardiff Blues 12
The Blues dropped the ball from the restart and were under pressure instantly with the big Northampton forwards driving forward. Eventually they spread the ball right using the overlap and Ashton sprinted in the corner to score. Myler converted and it was the worse possible start to the second half for the capital side.
There then followed a good passage of play by Blues and they moved into the Saints twenty two before eventually conceding a penalty and Saints cleared. Myler slotted another penalty and the Blues were now 20-12 down and the pressure didn’t ease up. Again Northampton attacked. Mustoe did well to ease the pressure breaking out of the twenty two and Parks cleared.
Myler was directing the Saints play, putting in neat kicks and keeping the Blues pinned back in their own half. Again the fly half slotted a further penalty and with 15 minutes left the Blues needed two penalties to get at least a losing bonus point.
Parks slotted the first with 10 minutes left, after Lawes had been sent to the bin to ensure a tense finish. The Saints could have sealed it when Myler put in a cross field kick but Ashton failed to gather the pin point kick only two metres out from the tryline. A bust up amongst the forwards from the scrum saw Dylan Hartley and Gareth Williams sent to the bin. The disagreement continued as both players walked off, then to add to the drama the floodlights failed.
There was enough time left for the Blues to be awarded a scrum and they had to play it. They ran all the way from their own twenty two with Czekaj showing real pace and Warburton and Molitika carrying on the move to within yards of the tryline. However they knocked on and Saints won a penalty form the scrum and cleared to end the match, which would ensure it would be make or break match next weekend for the Blues.
15 Chris Czekaj14 Richard Mustoe (45off50on) 13 Casey Laulala12 Tom Shanklin11 Tom James10 Dan Parks9 Richie Rees
8 Xavier Rush 7 Martyn Williams (54off) 6 Maama Molitika 5 Paul Tito (c) (54off) 4 Bradley Davies 3 Taufa'ao Filise 2 Gareth Williams 1 Gethin Jenkins
16 Rhys Williams 17 Sam Hobbs 18 John Yapp (45on50off) 19 Michael Paterson (54on) 20 Sam Warburton (54on) 21 Tom Slater 22 Ceri Sweeney 23 Gavin Evans
15 Ben Foden 14 Chris Ashton 13 Jon Clarke 12 James Downey 11 Paul Diggin 10 Stephen Myler 9 Ryan Powell
1 Soane Tonga'uiha 2 Dylan Hartley (capt) 3 Brian Mujati 4 Courtney Lawes 5 Christian Day 6 Phil Dowson 7 Tom Wood 8 Roger Wilson
Replacements 16 Brett Sharman 17 Regardt Dreyer 18 Tom Mercey 19 Mark Sorenson 20 Calum Clark 21 Lee Dickson 22 Shane Geraghty 23 Joe Ansbro
Cardiff Blues
Tries
Pen Parks x 5
Con
D/G
Northampton Saints
Tries Diggin x 1 Ashton x 1
Pen Myler x 3
Con Myler x 2
D/G
Yellow Card: Downey, Lawes, Filise, Hartley, G Williams
Attendance: 13,499