Sale Sharks 34 Cardiff Blues 33
Sunday 14 October 12.45pm kick off, Salford City Stadium
With Sale struggling in the Aviva premiership, the Blues knew that the north-west side would look to the Heineken Cup as a fresh opportunity to kick start their season. The Blues were also looking to get back to winning ways and lined up against two old boys, Nick Macleod at fly half and Andy Powell at number eight starting at the impressive Salford City Stadium.
It was a dry afternoon that was ideal for running rugby but the Blues got their first points with a 55metre Leigh Halfpenny penalty after Andy Powell penalized for blocking.
Powell looked dangerous, taking a quick free kick from scrum, when Blues were a man down with Warburton off with a dislocated finger. Despite coming to within a yard of the try-line the Blues turned them over and cleared, only for Will Addison to run back and give what looked like a try scoring pass for Miller who spilled the ball. The Blues were under pressure early on and Sale equalized through a Macleod penalty.
A good group of Cardiff Blue supporters had traveled up, and stood behind the posts they had something to cheer when the Blues crossed for the first try of the match. Having won clean ball in the scrum. Sweeney took the ball on and timed his pass to perfection with Roberts smashing through the middle and passing to Cuthbert, who had come off his wing to touch down under the posts. Halfpenny converted.
It wasn’t long before the second came with a lovely break and inter-passing by Copeland that saw the ball move again to Sweeney on the right wing, who passed inside for Cuthbert to put the ball down under the posts, Halfpenny again converting.
Macleod slotted three penalties back for the Sharks but both sides were looking to spread the ball wide, which was looking dangerous with the defenders flying up to intercept.
The Blues came agonizingly close to getting their third with some great offloading in the tackle by Lloyd Williams, Gavin Evans and Copeland nearly putting in Cuthbert for his hat trick. But the big winger was bundled into touch at the corner flag.
Cuthbert did get his third minutes later following some superb work by Marc Breeze. Sale put in a high kick that Powell knocked on into the hands of the mobile hooker. Breeze showed great speed to break in the Sale twenty-two before timing his pass perfectly for Cuthbert to run onto to score. Halfpenny got the extras.
Half time: Sale Sharks 12 Cardiff Blues 24
The second half started with the Blues looking for their fourth try and the Sharks looking to get back in the match. Halfpenny struck first with a 45-metre penalty to give the Blues and even bigger cushion.
Both sides made a number of substitutions to try to freshen things up knowing that the next try could be a crucial one. Cipriani came on for the home side to add a bit of zip to their play and immediately made an impact. A well-timed pass put Addison into space on the left, who passed back inside for Cipriani to gather one handed and touch down. Miller was wide with the conversion and a Halfpenny long-range penalty took the score to 17-30 on the hour mark.
The Blues should have scored when they came to within yards of the Sale try0line but it was Sharks who struck back with another well worked try, Sam Tuituipou breaking strongly down the right before passing on to Jennings who sprinted in. Miller got the extras to bring it to 24-30 with 15 minutes left. The score lifted the home side, who were playing with more urgency and threatening to take the lead.
The Blues were dealt a blow when substitute Lewis Jones was shown a yellow card. Sale opted for the scrum 5 metres out and Powel picked and drove eventually the ball came to Tony Buckley who powered over. Miller slotted the conversion to put Sale ahead for the first time on 75 minutes.
Miller put the nail in the coffin when the Blues were penalized with the next move and the fullback converted a 45-metre penalty to put Sale four points clear. The Blues were awarded a further penalty that Halfpenny converted to narrow the lead but there wasn’t enough time on the clock for the Bleus to get another score.
Cardiff Blues 15 Leigh Halfpenny 14 Alex Cuthbert 13 Gavin Evans 12 Jamie Roberts 11 Tom James 10 Ceri Sweeney 9 Lloyd Williams (70off)
8 Andries Pretorius (c) 7 Sam Warburton (6off) 6 Josh Navidi 5 Lou Reed 4 Bradley Davies 3 Benoit Bourrust (50off) 2 Marc Breeze (50ff) 1 Tafa’ao Filise
16 Andi Kyriacou (50on) 17 Nathan Trevett (50on) 18 Scott Andrews 19 James Down 20 Robin Copeland (6on)21 Lewis Jones (70on) 22 Gareth Davies 23 Dan Fish
Sale Sharks: 15.Rob Miller, 14.Mark Jennings, 13.Will Addison, 12.Sam Tuitupou, 11.Mark Cueto, 10.Nick Macleod, 9.Nathan Fowles,
1.Eifion Lewis-Roberts, 2.Tommy Taylor, 3.Tony Buckley, 4.Richie Gray, 5.Fraser McKenzie, 6.Richie Vernon, 7.David Seymour (capt.), 8.Andy Powell
16.Joe Ward, 17.Ross Harrison, 18.Vadim Cobilas, 19.Kearnan Myall, 20.James Gaskell, 21.Cillian Willis, 22.Danny Cipriani, 23.Johnny Leota
Cardiff Blues
Tries Cuthbert x 3
Con Halfpenny x 3
Pen Halfpenny x 4
D/G
Sale Sharks
Tries Cipriani x 1 Jennings x 1 Buckley x 1
Con Miller x 2
Pen Macleod x 4
D/G
Attendance: 5,853
Yellow Card: Lewis Jones