No place like home for Blues
Cardiff Blues coach Gareth Baber insisted he and his side were delighted to make the quarterfinals of the Heineken Cup despite missing out on a home tie in the last eight.
The Blues beat Racing Metro 92 36-30 in a topsy-turvy encounter which saw the lead change hands seven times at the Cardiff City Stadium but Edinburgh’s last-gasp bonus-point win over London Irish meant it was they who topped Pool Two.
But rather than focus on the disappointment of being pipped to pole position by their Scottish rivals, Baber was keen to stress the positives of joining the continent’s top table in his first season in charge.
“I’m absolutely over the moon to be in the quarterfinals of the Heineken Cup. When Justin Burnell and I took over in June, we targeted being the last eight and we’ve fulfilled our target,” said Baber.
“Missing out on a home tie probably sinks in a little later down the line but this competition throws up these sorts of scenarios, as we’ve seen all weekend. That was always going to be the case again today.
“Hats off to Edinburgh, they got their four tries, we scored three and it was always going to be as close as that.
“We lost one game in the pool stages and we got a bonus point in that…and we’re the only Welsh region to be in the quarterfinals.”
Racing travelled to the Welsh capital with nothing but pride to play for but they offered the Blues a stiff challenge and nearly snuck a win as they chased a breakaway try at the death.
And while some critics suggested Racing would roll over early on given the fact that qualification was already far beyond them, Baber says the Blues got exactly what they expected: a hugely physical and uncompromising confrontation which meant that winning was always going to be a big achievement in itself.
“We met a good, big and physical Racing side who were on their mettle. They wanted to sign off from the Heineken Cup by putting as much pressure as they could on us,” added Baber.
“Let’s not forget that they’re an international-class outfit. Whatever team they put out is an international team and I thought we coped well with what came out of their changing room.
“For a period of 20 to 25 minutes in the second period I was thinking I was watching one of the biggest teams I’ve ever seen play rugby.
“But we’ve got a character and ability about ourselves that means we manage to win games. We’re working hard as a group to make sure we develop our game but we’ve got a great group of players who want to play for each other and for their region – that’s massively important,” he added.
The scorers:
For Cardiff Blues:
Tries: Williams, Cuthbert 2
Cons: Halfpenny 3
Pens: Halfpenny 5
For Racing Metro:
Tries: Matavesi, Bobo
Cons: Descons
Pens: Wisniewski 2, Descons 2, Steyn 2
The teams:
Cardiff Blues: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Gavin Evans, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Lloyd Williams, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Michael Paterson, 5 Paul Tito, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Scott Andrews, 2 T Rhys Thomas, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16 Ryan Tyrrell, 17 John Yapp, 18 Sam Hobbs, 19 Maama Molitika, 20 Josh Navidi, 21 Richie Rees, 22 Ceri Sweeney, 23 Tom James.
Racing Métro 92: 15 Josh Matavesi, 14 Henry Chavancy, 13 Frans Steyn, 12 Fabrice Estebanez, 11 Sereli Bobo, 10 Jonathan Wisniewski, 9 Sebastien Descons, 8 Sebastien Chabal. 7 Antoine Batut, 6 John Leo’o, 5 Francois van der Merwe, 4 Karim Ghezal, 3 Benjamin Sa, 2 Benjamin Noirot, 1 Mikaele Tuugahala.
Replacements: 16 Gregory Arganese, 17 Julien Brugnaut, 18 Juan Pablo Orlandi, 19 Jone Qovu Nailiko, 20 Mathieu Loree, 21 Juan Imhoff, 22 Remi Vaquiin, 23 Jacques Cronje.
Referee: Andrew Small (England)
