Solid success for Cardiff over Sale
The Cardiff Blues produced a strong display on Saturday afternoon to record a good 36-19 win over the Sale Sharks in their Heineken Cup encounter at the Cardiff City Stadium.
While they may not have done enough to put any real pressure on Toulouse in the race for the top spot in Pool Five the performance, after a lackluster season so far, reminded everyone what this Blues side is capable of. Sale competed well, showing some great skill to create Matthew Tait’s try in particularly, but generally were second best on the day.
Kiwi Ben Blair started the scoring with a penalty after just three minutes but both sides seemed quite keen to run the ball.
With eight minutes gone it was Sale who were the first to cross the tryline. Powerful No.8 Sisa Koyamaibole was the man – showing fantastic strength the former Toulon man picked up a loose ball at the back of a swinging Blues scrum and shrugged off the attempted tackles of a couple Blues players before diving over the line.
England Saxon Charlie Hodgson missed the conversion but the early signs were good for the Premiership side.
Blair restored the Blues to the lead with a penalty after 20 minutes but the game remained on a knife’s edge for much of the half.
While the forwards were locked in a great battle of front the two backlines were continuing to test eachother out. Hodgson, full of confidence was looking to pick a line-breaking pass while Jamie Roberts and Casey Laulala, for Cardiff, were always threatening.
The Sharks were certainly playing some good rugby but it was the home side who continued to build their points talley. First Leigh Halfpenny, from long range, and the Blair, the hosts got themselves out to a seven point, 12-5, lead with half time fast approaching.
The 10 minutes after half time then effectively decided the contest.
Livewire scrumhalf Richie Rees was the first of three men to go over in a hectic nine minute spell. The No.9 put the Blues out to a 19-5 lead before Bradley Davies crashed over for his try – striking a real hammer blow for the hosts.
To their credit Sale responded with a try of their own. England centre Matthew Tait, who had done some good work defensively in the first half, finished off the try after some great handling from a couple of his teammates, including lock James Gaskell, and perhaps once again flagged his name up as a potential weapon for England manager Martin Johnson in the upcoming Six Nations.
Blair’s fourth penalty followed shortly afterwards and the game was all but sown up. Camping in the visitors half, the Blues part in particularly were starting to grind their opponents into submission.
Kingsley Jones men dug deep though, fighting their way out of the half end launching one last assault on the Blues line. Their determination was rewarded two minutes from time with a try for young second row Gaskell.
The Blues though had comfortably been the better team and, deservedly, had the final score of the game.
Inspirational No.8 Xavier Rush, named Man-of-the-Match after the final whistle, crashed over for the Blues third try.
The Scorers
For Cardiff
Tries: Rees, Davies, Rush
Pen: Blair 4, Halfpenny
Cons: Blair 3
For Sale
Try: Koyamaibole, Tait, Gaskell
Cons: Hodgson 2
The teams:
Cardiff: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Tom James, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Andy Powell, 5 Deiniol Jones, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Taufau Filise, 2 Gareth Williams, 1 Gethin Jenkins (capt).
Replacements: 16 T Rhys Thomas, 17 Sam Hobbs, 18 Gary Powell, 19 Paul Tito, 20 Ben White, 21 Gareth Cooper, 22 Sam Norton Knight, 23 Tom Shanklin.
Sale: 15 Nick Macleod, 14 Mark Cueto, 13 Mathew Tait, 12 Lee Thomas, 11 Ben Cohen, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Sisa Koyamaibole, 7 David Seymour, 6 Carl Fearns, 5 James Gaskell, 4 Dean Schofield, 3 Martin Halsall, 2 Neil Briggs, 1 Eifion Roberts.
Replacements: 16 Marc Jones, 17 Gavin Kerr, 18 Rob O’Donnell, 19 Chris Jones, 20 Luke Abraham, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Jonny Kennedy, 23 David Docherty.
Referee: Romain Poite
