Blues continue for struggling Cardiff

Cardiff’s poor start to the season continued on Friday night as they slumped to their third straight Magners League defeat at the hands of Connacht – going down 18-16 at the Sportsground.

New Zealand fullback Ben Blair had a chance to snatch victory for the visitors right at the death but when his 79th minutes penalty attempt went wide the Irish side were able to celebrate their well-deserved success.

Trailing after 40 minutes, two second half tries from left wing Fionna Carr helped Connacht into the lead and ultimately put them in a position to claim the unexpected victory.

Blair, the scorer of all his teams points on Friday, opened the scoring with a try after just six minutes. He added a penalty 20 minutes later to extend his sides lead to 10 points before, on 36 minutes, Ian Keatley put the home side on the board with a successful penalty.

It was Connacht then who dominated the second half. Carr scored the first of his two tries after just eight minutes before, with an hour gone, he added his second; putting his side into the lead for the first time.

Another Keatley penalty extended the gap to eight points and, while they dominated the final quarter of an hour, the Blues could muster only two more successful Blair penalties in the closing stages – ensuring they suffered a disappointing 18-16 defeat.

The scorers:

For Connacht:

Tries: Carr 2
Cons: Keatley
Pens: Keatley 2

For the Blues:

Tries: Blair
Cons: Blair
Pens: Blair 3

Yellow card: Molitika (55, Cardiff Blues)

Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy, 14 Brian Tuohy, 13 Troy Nathan, 12 Keith Matthews, 11 Fionn Carr, 10 Miah Nikora, 9 Frank Murphy, 8 Mike McComish, 7 Ray Ofisa, 6 John Muldoon (c), 5 Bernie Upton, 4 Andrew Browne, 3 Jamie Hagan, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Brett Wilkinson.
Replacements: 16 Adrian Flavin, 17 Ronan Loughney, 18 Mike McCarthy, 19 Johnny O’Connor, 20 Conor O’Loughlin, 21 Ian Keatley, 22 Aidan Wynne.

Cardiff Blues: 15 Ben Blair, 14 Leigh Halfpenny, 13 Gareth Thomas, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Chris Czekaj, 10 Ceri Sweeney, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Maama Molitika, 5 Paul Tito, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Taufa’ao Filise, 2 Gareth Williams, 1 John Yapp.
Replacements: 16 Gary Powell, 17 T Rhys Thomas, 18 Deiniol Jones, 19 Adam Powell, 20 Gareth Cooper, 21 Sam Norton-Knight, 22 Gavin Evans.

Referee: Neil Paterson (SRU)
Assistant Referees: John Lacey (IRFU), Peter Roche (IRFU)