Blues defeat European Champions
The Blues banished their away day blues in the Magners League as they finally found the key to success on Irish soil with their first triumph there since they beat Connacht in Galway on January 22nd 2005.
Winning on the road has proved something of a mystery to Dai Young’s players in this league in recent seasons. This was only their second away success in seven attempts this term and only the seventh in twenty-seven trips in three seasons.
The likes of O’Gara, Stringer, O’Callaghan and O’Connell were missing from the home line-up yet few teams travel to Munster and win in any circumstances. Having lost twice to the men in red in the Heineken Cup this season the Blues had a point to prove. They also had the chance to move up to fourth place in the table and show the leaders that they are still not out of the title race.
Young must have been happy to be given the green light by Wales Coach Gareth Jenkins to field six Wales squad members in his team and the big guns certainly swung the game in the Blues’ favour.
Rob Sidoli was at the heart of a magnificent line-out effort that saw the visitors totally humiliate their hosts by stealing seven of their fourteen throws and keep a one hundred per cent success rate on their own ball.
Behind the scrum Jamie Robinson was superb in the way he marshalled the Blues defensive line, even if his man-of-the-match performance was marred by a career first trip to the sin-bin in the second half.
The Blues dominated the opening stages and enjoyed ninety per cent territory in the first quarter as they drove through their well organised pack and controlled the ball well behind the scrum.
There were early chances for prop Taufa’ao Filise and Welsh scrum half candidate Mike Phillips, but last ditch knock-ons prevented the Blues from converting their early pressure into a try.
Yet it only took eight minutes before the visitors had notched their first points. Jamie Robinson tackled and then jackled Mick O’Driscoll to win a penalty forty metres out – Ben Blair hit the mark.
If the control and pressure was all coming from the Blues, Munster were stubborn and combative in defence and eventually worked their way into the 22. After trying the direct route for the Blues line via their forwards Munster got in an awful mess behind the scrum and a dropped pass allowed Tom James to hack on.
The Blues wing hacked out of his 22 and chased hard upfield, but proved he is no soccer star in the making when his second kick ahead went straight into two Munster defenders. When the ball ricocheted kindly back into his hands some forty metres out he showed off his sprinting talent and won the race to the line for a try which Blair converted.
A second Blair penalty from forty metres five minutes before half-time extended the Blues’ lead and put them on course for a league double over the Irishmen.
Three penalties from Eoghan Hickey hauled Munster back into contention after the break, but Blair kept his cool to make it five from five kicks with two more penalties of his own and all the good work of the first-half remained intact for the visitors.
Munster 12 Cardiff Blues 19
Munster
Pen: E Hickey (4)
Cardiff Blues
Try: T James
Con: B Blair
Pen: B Blair (4)
Munster: C Cullen; S Payne (L Mafi 41), B Murphy, T Halstead, J Kelly (captain); E Hickey, T O’Leary; D Hurley (T Buckley 51), F Sheahan (D Fogarty 77), F Pucciariello (M Melbourne 68), C Wyatt (D Ryan 45), M O’Driscoll, A Quinlan, T McGann, J O’Sullivan
Cardiff Blues: B Blair; T James (M Luveitasau 41), J Robinson, M Stcherbina (N Macleod 82), C Czekaj; N Robinson, M Phillips; T Filise (M Lewis 71), R Thomas, G Powell, D Jones, R Sidoli, S Morgan, R Shellard (B White 76), X Rush (captain)
